Korean Alphabet Letters: All 40 Letters of the DPRK Norm, Named and Card-Ready

October 17, 2026 · KoryoTalk · 8 min read

Short answer: the Korean alphabet, counted the North Korean way, has 40 letters — 19 consonants and 21 vowels. The southern count says «24 letters» (14 consonants, 10 vowels): it simply does not count the five tense consonants ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ and eleven compound vowels as letters of their own. The names differ too: the North calls ㄱ 기윽 (kiuk), the South calls it 기역; for ㄷ the Northern name is 디읃 (tit), the southern one is 디귿. Below, every letter as a flash card: Northern name, reading tip, and an example word from a DPRK dictionary.

How many letters in the Korean alphabet: 40 or 24

Both answers are correct — they use different counting systems. The Northern standard (문화어, munhwaŏ) counts all 40 signs as full letters: 19 consonants and 21 vowels, in the order fixed by the 조선말규범집 (Chosŏn mal gyubŏmjip, 1987 edition). The southern «24 letters» treats the five tense consonants as doubled variants and the compound vowels ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅚ and others as combinations. For a learner the difference is practical: in DPRK flash cards ㄲ is a letter of its own named 된기윽 (toen-kiuk), not «double k».

Consonant cards: 19 letters with Northern names

The consonant order below is the Northern one from the 규범집: plain first, then aspirated, then tense.

Vowel cards: 21 letters

Ten basic vowels and eleven compound ones. Vowels have no letter names in the DPRK system: a vowel is called by its sound.

That is 21 vowels in total: 10 basic and 11 compound; the pairs ㅐ/ㅔ and ㅚ/ㅟ sound nearly identical in living speech.

Memorizing the letters with flash cards: a 5-day plan

The method is classic paper cards — 카드 (khadŭ) in Korean: letter on the front, name, sound and example word on the back.

• Day 1. The nine plain consonants ㄱ–ㅈ: name + sound. Quiz yourself out of order, not alphabetically.
• Day 2. The aspirated ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ next to their plain twins — the only difference is the puff of air (how to feel it: the pronunciation guide).
• Day 3. The five tense consonants: their Northern names all start with 된- («tense»). Drill them with the minimal pair 불/뿔.
• Day 4. The ten basic vowels. Stack the first syllables: 가, 다, 사 — this is how letters turn into reading.
• Day 5. The compound vowels + reciting all 40 letters in order (the full order: the series hub article).

Then comes 연습 (practice) and 반복 (repetition): 20–30 cards a day, 매일 (every day), gradually picking up 속도 (speed). Take example words from a dictionary — that way you memorize not an abstract sign but a whole 낱말 (word).

How Northern letter names differ from southern ones

The DPRK naming system is built on one model: 기윽, 니은, 디읃. The southern system calls the same letters 기역, 디귿, 시옷 — those are southern counterexamples; you will not find them in the KoryoTalk dictionary database. If you learned with southern textbooks but read Northern texts, the names have to be relearned — the letters themselves are identical. The history of the script and the two norms: One Language, Two Norms.

A two-week plan

Week 1 — cards as above: 5 days for the letters, 2 days of review. Week 2 — reading syllables and words: 아이, 강, 밥, 책, 의사, 교실, 오늘, 과일, 아침, 학생, 유리, 이름, 음악 — and checking the sounds with the KoryoTalk bot: a dictionary base of 2.2 million Korean–Russian entries plus a separately built layer of verified Northern equivalents.

Fact check: the Korean words in this article — 조선글, 글자, 문화어, 규범, 기윽, 니은, 디읃, 리을, 미음, 비읍, 시읏, 이응, 지읒, 치읓, 키읔, 티읕, 피읖, 히읗, 된기윽, 된디읃, 된비읍, 된시읏, 된지읒, 카드, 표, 학습, 연습, 암기, 외우다, 반복, 순서, 종이, 속도, 매일, 처음, 다음, 낱말, 가구, 나비, 다리, 로동자, 어머니, 아버지, 사람, 지우개, 창, 키, 탁자, 평양, 꽃, 딸, 아빠, 쌀, 찌개, 아이, 강, 밥, 책, 의사, 교실, 오늘, 과일, 아침, 학생, 유리, 이름, 음악, 할머니, 불, 뿔, 발음, 소리, 자음, 모음, 받침 — are confirmed by the KoryoTalk dictionary base. Letter names follow 조선말규범집 (1987 ed., § 1); southern 기역/디귿/시옷 are cited as counterexamples per the National Institute of Korean Language (korean.go.kr). Demand data: «korean alphabet letters» cluster — Yandex Wordstat, Oct 17.