Korean, or say Korean 한 국 어), (hereinafter referred to as "the words" or "Korean/Korean", is a popular Korean peninsula and near eastern north Asia regional language. In north Korea, the language known formally as the Korean; In South Korea, it is officially called, both the same Korean nature. Korean spoken in south, north Korea, about fifty million people who speak the language. In addition, in China and more than one hundred ten thousand people, in Japan, with five hundred thousand people, three hundred and fifty thousand people in the Soviet union.

Before 1392, the language called "the Korean language", 1392, LiChengGui establish "north Korea dynasty", this language after called "Korean". In 1897, north Korea the emperor LiXi proclaims oneself emperor, the change into "Korean empire after", the language called "Korean" or "Korean". After world war ii, the Korean peninsula north of the democratic People's Republic of Korea to call it "Korean", and north Korea peninsula in the south Korean republic of Korea called it "" or" Korean ".

In different parts of the world have different official title:
Academia general with "Korean" as the language of the name, at the same time to "Korean" to call this kind of written language.
The official communist country appellation: Korean. Nanyang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and America, South Korea, Japan and other countries/regions of the official Chinese/Japanese/Korean Chinese name is: Korean (South Korea Korean language).
Mainland China: say north Korea's expression for "Korean", South Korea expression for "Korean". Such as kazakhstan central Asian countries still call this kind of language "Korean language".

But in now, with the People's Republic of China and South Korea and the exchange of diplomatic relations between the expansion, the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people now to the definition of Korean began to change, namely "Korean general refers to the" use of language, in South Korea and "Korean" is usually used in north Korea. Especially And this is Japan people take the two name in ways. The Korean community of the People's Republic of China, the past generally call "Korean", now also are beginning to use "Korean".