Goheung-gun to Convert Old Land Registers into Hangul

Conversion from Chinese Characters to Hangul
"Enhancing Trust in Civil Service"

Goheung-gun, South Jeolla Province (Governor Gong Youngmin), announced on April 25 that it will begin a full-scale project to convert the "old land register," which was written in Chinese characters over 100 years ago, into Hangul.

The old land register is a cadastral document written in Chinese characters during the land survey project implemented by the Japanese colonial government in 1910 and was used until 1975. Even today, it serves as fundamental data for various land administration tasks, including land ownership disputes, the Special Act on Real Estate Ownership, locating ancestors' land, and investigations into changes in land markings.

Before (left) and after Hangul conversion of Goheung-gun. Provided by Goheung-gun

This project was initiated because most of the approximately 310,000 old land register documents stored in Goheung-gun are written in difficult Chinese characters, Japanese-style notation, and outdated administrative terminology, making interpretation challenging not only for the general public but also for administrative agencies.

To address these issues, the county completed the creation of high-resolution images for the 310,000 old land register documents stored in the cadastral archives by last year. Based on this, Goheung-gun plans to fully convert the documents into Hangul over the next three years, by 2027, through an annual phased approach, and to establish an integrated cadastral management system.

A county official stated, "This project to convert the old land register into Hangul is not simply a matter of organizing records, but part of administrative innovation for the future," adding, "We will do our utmost to create changes that the residents can tangibly experience."