In the ancient Korean period before BC, only Chinese characters were used on the Korean peninsula for a thousand years, and only Chinese characters were available. Before the invention of Korean, Chinese characters were the only writing system on the Korean peninsula for 1000 years. For more than 400 years after the invention of Korean, Chinese characters have been the official writing system on the Korean Peninsula. In fact, not only the Korean peninsula, but also ancient East Asia. Chinese characters used to be the common language of East Asian cultural circle, so this area is often called "Chinese character cultural circle".
It can be traced back to the invention of Korean in the middle of15th century, which lasted more than 400 years. It was an era in which the Chinese writing system was dominant and the Korean writing system was supplemented. At that time, all official documents, diplomatic documents, historical works, scholars' collections, and even people's names, place names, road signs and signboards were written in Chinese characters. Only some folk books, letters, novels and ballads are written in Korean.
The fundamental reversal of the status of Chinese characters and Korean didn't really happen until the end of 19. The fundamental reason is that China's national strength began to decline, losing its strong cultural influence in East Asia, and because North Korea was involved in the world trend, nationalism began to awaken.
This change is clearly reflected in the wording of newspapers on the Korean peninsula: 1883, the first government newspaper, Seoul Xunbao, was published only in Chinese characters; 1886, changed to Seoul Weekly, with Chinese characters and Korean mixed; 1896, Independent News, the first private newspaper in Korea, was founded. 1898, the first daily newspaper, Daily News, was founded, also in Korean.
In the following decades, although South Korea's writing policy often wavered and occasionally Chinese characters were allowed to appear, the status of Korean never wavered, reaching its peak in the era of park chung-hee (the father of former President park geun-hye). However, Chinese characters have been used in the Korean peninsula for nearly two thousand years, and their influence has already penetrated into the national language. Therefore, although it seems pleasant to ban Chinese characters, it also brings various problems.