The Constitutional Court on Friday held a hearing on the Framework Act on Korean Language eleven years after the law designated the indigenous Hangeul as the sole official writing system.
 
The hearing was held after 333 people, including civic group members, parents and university professors, filed a petition in 2012 over the constitutionality of the 2005 law. The law bans the mixed use of Korean and Chinese characters in official documents and textbooks.
 
The petitioners claimed that the law violates the right to manifest their individuality through language by forcing the exclusive use of Hangeul and excluding the culture of using Chinese characters.
 
Park Sung-chul, the lawyer representing the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the law is aimed at promoting the advancement of the Korean language and not at obliterating or rejecting Chinese characters.
 
Park said that elementary, middle and high schools are teaching Chinese characters at their own discretion or as elective subjects, stressing that the Korean people can use Chinese characters freely in their everyday lives at any time.