Editing Hanja (section)

===North===
Though North Korea rapidly abandoned the general use of Hanja soon after independence,<ref>Hannas 1997: 67. "By the end of 1946 and the beginning of 1947, the major newspaper ''Nodong sinmun'', mass circulation magazine ''Kulloja'', and similar publications began appearing in all-''hangul''. School textbooks and literary materials converted to all-''hangul'' at the same time or possibly earlier (So 1989:31)."</ref> the number of Hanja taught in primary and secondary schools is actually greater than the 1,800 taught in South Korea.<ref>Hannas 1997: 68. "Although North Korea has removed Chinese characters from its written materials, it has, paradoxically, ended up with an educational program that teachers more characters than either South Korea or Japan, as Table 2 shows."</ref> [[Kim Il Sung]] had earlier called for a gradual elimination of the use of Hanja,<ref>Hannas 1997: 67. "According to Ko Yong-kun, Kim went on record as early as February 1949, when Chinese characters had already been removed from most DPRK publications, as advocating their ''gradual'' abandonment (1989:25)."</ref> but by the 1960s, he had reversed his stance; he was quoted as saying in 1966, "While we should use as few Sinitic terms as possible, students must be exposed to the necessary Chinese characters and taught how to write them."<ref name="Hannas 1997: 67">Hannas 1997: 67</ref>

As a result, a Chinese-character textbook was designed for North Korean schools for use in grades 5–9, teaching 1,500 characters, with another 500 for high school students.<ref>Hannas 1997: 67. "Between 1968 and 1969, a four-volume textbook appeared for use in grades 5 through 9 designed to teach 1,500 characters, confirming the applicability of the new policy to the general student population. Another five hundred were added for grades 10 through 12 (Yi Yun-p'yo 1989: 372)."</ref> College students are exposed to another 1,000, bringing the total to 3,000.<ref>Hannas 2003: 188–189</ref>