SKATS stands for Standard Korean Alphabet Transliteration System. It is also known as Korean morse equivalents. Despite the name, SKATS is not a true transliteration system. SKATS maps the hangul

Hangul

Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

 characters through Korean Morse code to the same codes in Morse code

Morse code

Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...

 and back to their equivalents in the Roman alphabet. Any phonetic correspondence between the Korean and Roman letters would be purely coincidental.

If a Korean morse code operator were to transmit a Korean message in Morse, and an English speaking Morse code operator heard the message, what he would write down is SKATS. In order to understand SKATS, one must know Korean and know SKATS. Knowledge of English is not required.

The advantage of SKATS is the letter-perfect accuracy in conveying the Korean message, something that would be lost, were romanisations such as RR

Revised Romanization of Korean

The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea proclaimed by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, replacing the older McCune–Reischauer system...

 or McCune-Reischauer

McCune-Reischauer

McCune–Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced McCune–Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000...

 used. SKATS dates back to the days before Korean keyboards gained widespread acceptance, so it was a way for westerners who knew Korean to accurately produce the Korean language on a typewriter or keyboard. The primary users of SKATS are government departments who are interested in letter-to-letter accuracy.

SKATS is not a cipher

Cipher

In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...

.

When using SKATS it is important to remember not to read the letters as they sound in English, but to read them as they sound in SKATS.

The letters are written left to right as in standard written English. The correct form is to put one space between syllables and two spaces between words, but this often varies from one user to another. Without the double spaces between words, word breaks are ambiguous. If the rules are strictly observed, a Korean text written in SKATS could be perfectly recovered.

Double consonants and double or triple vowels are written the same way – each letter in the same order as if it were written in hangul.

SKATS

Consonants		Vowels
Hangul	SKATS	Hangul	SKATS
ㄱ	L	ㅏ	E
ㄴ	F	ㅑ	I
ㄷ	B	ㅓ	T
ㄹ	V	ㅕ	S
ㅁ	M	ㅗ	A
ㅂ	W	ㅛ	N
ㅅ	G	ㅜ	H
ㅇ	K	ㅠ	R
ㅈ	P	ㅡ	D
ㅊ	C	ㅣ	U
ㅋ	X
ㅌ	Z
ㅍ	O
ㅎ	J

Sample sentence

SKATS:
LUM CU LE  MEG KUGG BE.

Hangul:
Revised romanisation:
Gimchiga masitta.

English:
“The kimchi

Kimchi

Kimchi , also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onions or cucumber. It is the most common...

is delicious.”