Koreans to Have Access to Internet Addresses in Hangul

ICANN agreed to launch a process for delegation internationalized top-level domains

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) wrapped up the 36th annual meeting which was held at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul for a 6-day run from Oct. 25-30.
On the final day of the meeting, ICANN’s board of directors met and approved a plan to launch a process for delegating country code top-level domains (IDN ccTLDs) in non-latin characters such as hangul (Korean alphabet), Chinese characters and etc. According to the approval, ICANN will accept requests on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) from each country. IDNs are domain names that include characters other than the current available set of the English alphabet (the 26 letters “a-z,” numbers 0 to 9, and hyphens).
The introduction of IDNs is expected to contribute to helping non-English speakers across the world and to bridge the digital divide by allowing them to use their own languages and lettering systems in domain names.
As new Internet extensions for internationalized top-level domains represent their country names, Korea is expected to select .한국 (official short form county name in Korean) or .대한민국 (official long form country name in Korean).
The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), the public entity in charge of the management of the country code domain name for Korea(.kr), said Korea’s internationalized top-level domain names will be decided after scrutinizing the merits and demerits of the introduction. To this end, KISA will consult with Internet experts from academic, industry and research institute circles and hold public hearings.
Once the requests on IDNs from countries are evaluated and approved by ICANN, Internet extensions are expected to come online in Korea during the second half of 2010, given the fact that the establishment of policies on internationalized top-level domains and the grace period of the new policies will take time.
An official from KISA, the co-organizer of ICANN’s annual meeting in Seoul, said the gathering was an opportunity to recognize policies on Internet addresses and resources as the subject of global concern. The official urged ordinary Korean Internet users to proactively participate in the meeting.
People can participate in ICANN annual meetings via real time webcast service of ICANN’s homepage and send opinions in the form of online chatting.
The 37th ICANN Annual Meeting will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from March 7-12. The outcome of the ICANN Annual Meeting in Seoul will be available through ICANN’s Website (http://sel.icann.org).
ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet and doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, the organization has an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. nw

(left) Kim Hee-jung, president of Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), gives a speech at an opening ceremony of the 36th ICANN Annual Meeting in Seoul. A view of the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) conference that got under way from Oct. 25-30.