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From https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-08-10/say-what-language-hurdles-plague-two-koreas-after-years-of-division

Say What? Language Hurdles Plague Two Koreas After Years of Division
BY JEONGMIN KIM AND Josh Smith
August 10, 2018

When South Korean businessman Kim Yong-tae worked with North Koreans at the Kaesong Industrial Complex before it was closed in 2016, one of the biggest challenges was communicating in what is ostensibly a shared language.

"There were confounding moments because there were terms I never heard of while working and living just in South Korea," he said, describing blank looks from some North Korean workers when he used the word "container," which is pronounced similar to its English term in South Korea.

Between the South's increasing adoption of international terms and the North's political sensitivity to some words, the growing language divide is complicating cooperation on a range of joint cultural and economic exchanges as ties between the neighbors improve.

To counter the confusion and promote a feeling of unity, the South Korean government is working to restart an obscure academic project aimed at developing a common Korean language dictionary with the North.

North and South Korea speak the same language based on the Hangeul alphabet, but after decades of division, only about 70 percent of words are mutually understood, according to some experts.

Read the full article at https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-08-10/say-what-language-hurdles-plague-two-koreas-after-years-of-division