Revised Romanization of Korean

The sign with the name of the railway station in Bucheon — at the top, a writing in hangul, the transliteration in Latin script below using the Revised Romanization, along with the hanja text.

The sign with the name of the railway station in Jecheon — at the top, a writing in hangul, the transliteration in Latin script below using the Revised Romanization and the English translation of the word 'station', along with the hanja text.

Almost all road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs, etc. have been changed according to Revised Romanization of Korean (RR, also called South Korean or Ministry of Culture (MC) 2000). It is estimated to have cost at least 500 billion won to 600 billion won (US$500~600 million) to carry out this procedure.[2] All Korean textbooks, maps and signs to do with cultural heritage were required to comply with the new system by 28 February 2002. Romanization of surnames and existing companies' names has been left untouched because of the reasons explained below. However, the Korean government encourages using the revised romanization of Korean for the new names.

Like several European languages that have undergone spelling reforms (such as Portuguese, German or Swedish), the Revised Romanization is not expected to be adopted as the official romanization of Korean family names. This is because the conditions for allowing changes in romanization of surnames in passport is very strict. The reasons are outlined below.

1. Countries around the world manage information about foreigners who are harmful to the public safety of their countries, including international criminals and illegal immigrants by the Roman name and date of birth of the passport they have used in the past. If a passport holder is free to change their listed Roman name, it would pose a serious risk to border management due to difficulty in determining identities.

2. The people of a country where it is free to change the official Roman name will be subject to strict immigration checks, which will inevitably cause inconvenience to the people of that country.

3. Arbitrary changes in the romanization of passports can lead to a fall in the credibility of the passports and national credit, which can have a negative impact on new visa waiver agreements, etc.

With very few exceptions, it is impossible for a person who has ever left the country under their romanized name to change their family name again.[3] However, South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism encourages those who “newly” register their romanized names to follow the Revised Romanization of Korean. In addition, North Korea continues to use a version of the McCune–Reischauer system of romanization, a different version of which was in official use in South Korea from 1984 to 2000.

Textbooks and dictionaries intended for students of the Korean language tend to include this Romanization. However, some publishers have acknowledged the difficulties or confusion it can cause for non-native Korean speakers who are unused to the conventions of this style of Romanization.[4]

ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㄹ are transcribed as g, d, b and r when placed at the initial of a word or before a vowel, and as k, t, p and l when followed by another consonant or when appearing at the end of a word.[5]

The revised romanization transcribes certain phonetic changes that occur with combinations of the ending consonant of a character and the initial consonant of the next like Hanguk → Hangugeo. These significant changes occur (highlighted in yellow):

Phonetic changes between syllables in given names are not transcribed: 정석민 → Jeong Seokmin or Jeong Seok-min, 최빛나 → Choe Bitna or Choe Bit-na.

Phonological changes are reflected where ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㅈ are adjacent to ㅎ: 좋고 → joko, 놓다 → nota, 잡혀 → japyeo, 낳지 → nachi. However, aspirated sounds are not reflected in case of nouns where ㅎ follows ㄱ, ㄷ and ㅂ: 묵호 → Mukho, 집현전 → Jiphyeonjeon.[5]