The Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China’s northeastern Jilin Province seeks to designate a special day to protect and promote the Korean language.

The Yanbian Daily reported a Korean language committee in the prefecture recently submitted a plan to the province’s communist party committee to designate September 2 as the "Day of the Korean Language."

The Korean language committee said the designation is needed to protect and improve the Korean language in Yanbian as it becomes non-mainstream in the region.

The official designation of the Day of the Korean Language requires approval of the autonomous prefecture’s people’s congress.

Yanbian is designated an autonomous prefecture in consideration of the large number of Koreans living there.