Hangul domain service will start in 2001

Starting in January next year, Korea will begin domain name registration in Hangul, Korean¡¯s written language, for access to Internet sites and exchange of e-mail messages. The Korea Internet Information Center, an organization under the umbrella of the Ministry of Information and Communications, announced July 31 that it would offer Hangul domain registration service starting in January 2001.

In this connection, the KRNIC is expected to process standardization and development of relevant technology, as well as preparations for registration and its systems, by September.

Those targets will be followed by pilot service of the Hangul domain service scheduled for October. The KRNIC said that Hangul domain service would enable Web site searches in Korean language. If Web users type, ¡°Ministry of Information & Communications¡± in Korean, the system automatically converts it into English through a key-word search or international domain standard method. The KRNIC is planning to develop the technology based on the international domain standard search system.