[LibreOffice Asia Conf 2025] LibreOffice Community & ODF Current Status in South Korea

[LibreOffice Asia Conf 2025] LibreOffice Community & ODF Current Status in South Korea
Date: 2025-12-14

In South Korea, the official document standards adopted by the government are ODF and OWPML. However, in practice, the widely used document format in the academic & public sector is the proprietary HWP format developed by Hancom(한글과 컴퓨터)
In this talk, I will introduce the structure and background of the HWP file format, and also present HWPX an XML-based open specification aligned with OWPML.
I will introduce a LibreOffice extension that allows reading both HWP and HWPX files (https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/27504)

I will introduce the recent activities and contributions of the LibreOffice Korean community.
The speaker promoted the use of the Open Document Format (ODF) at some Korea Open Source Conference, such as DebConf2024, Ubuntu Korea, PyCon Korea 2025, FOSS for All Conference 2025.

Finally, I will share several real-world cases where LibreOffice shows incomplete or problematic support for Korean environments, and share specific requirements for future development.

Transcript

1. Tokyo, 13 – 14 December 2025 LibreOffice Community & ODF Current Status in South Korea DaeHyun Sung(성대현,成大鉉, ソン・デヒョン) dhsung@libreoffice.org / sungdh86+git@gmail.com
2. Information This slide file(ODP) made by MS Powerpoint. Because, Korean fallback font setting is wrong. The fallback font uses “Microsoft YaHei,” which is not used in Korean. In Korean document, use half-width punctuation for horizontal writing
3. DaeHyun Sung(성대현,成大鉉, ソン・デヒョン) Korean Free/Libre Open Source Enthusiast LibreOffice Korean Team Operator(2017- current) Some FLOSS projects (such as GNOME, KDE, libhangul, etc) The Document Foundation Membership (Former) GNOME Foundation Membership (I forgotten the renewal)
4. Index ODF Current Status in South Korea 01 LibreOffice Korean community activity 02 Korean Language & CJK Issue in LibreOffice 03
5. ODF Current Status in South Korea
6. Document Standard in South Korea ➢Republic of Korea Government officially registered document standard both ODF & OWPML ➢ ODF ➢ KS X ISO/IEC 26300 (2007) – based on ODF v1.0 ➢ https://www.standard.go.kr/KSCI/standardIntro/getStandardSearchView.do?menu Id=919&topMenuId=502&upperMenuId=503&ksNo=KSXISOIEC26300&tmprKsN o=KSXISOIEC26300&reformNo=03&displayBlock=none&displayBlock2=block ➢ OWPML ➢ KS X 6101 (2011) ➢ https://www.standard.go.kr/KSCI/standardIntro/getStandardSearchView.do?menuId=50 3&topMenuId=502&ksNo=KSX6101&tmprKsNo=KSX6101 ➢However, Hancom’s Binary File format(HWP) broadly use in Korea
7. KS X ISO/IEC 26300 standard book cover & KS X 6101 standard book cover
8. HWP2024 screenshot
9. Open hwp file both HWP2024 and LibreOffice with H2Orestart
10. Recommendation from Hancom(hwp maker) - Use of hwpx format recommended starting April 15, 2021
11. Document Standards in South Korea ➢Ignoring Standards in the Public Sector ➢Current(2025), Some government ministries save document files in hwpx format(zip+xml based) instead of hwp ➢The Ministry of Science and ICT(과학기술정보통신부) offers the options to download files in hwpx or odt format (Since 2020) ➢ZDNet Korea - 어떤 워드프로세서로든 열리는 'ODT'…"국민 문서 활용도↑" (‘ODT’ opened with any word processor, “Document Utilization ”) ↑ https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=202011160942 17 ➢However, many document templates still require creation in hwp format ➢In most cases, public institutions use hwp files in binary format, not ODF or OWPML- based hwpx ➢Korean article: Embassy telling foreigners to create documents in HWP ➢https://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/04/30/2019043002500.html ➢“How to open HWP file.”
12. Adopted ODF formats on Some Korea public sectors ➢ The Ministry of Science and ICT(과학기술정보통신부) adopted ODF format (Since 2020) – Press Releases(보도자료) ➢Reference: https://www.msit.go.kr/bbs/view.do?s Code=user&mId=307&mPid=208&pageIndex=&bbs SeqNo=94&nttSeqNo=3186046&searchOpt=ALL&se archTxt=
13. Adopted HWPX formats on Some Korea public sectors ➢Ministry of Education(교육부) - Use hwpx ➢Ref: https://www.moe.go.kr/boar dCnts/viewRenew.do?boardID=294 &boardSeq=103782&lev=0&searchT ype=null&statusYN=W&page=1&s= moe&m=020402&opType=N
14. Still Using the HWP Format ➢Seoul metropolitan government(서울툭별시) website ➢Only hwp and pdf files are provided ➢https://www.seoul.go.kr/news/news_report.do#vie w/444673 ➢
15. Still Using the HWP Format ➢Q-Net, the national certification application platform, still use both HWP and PDF file formats. ➢HWP remains a mandatory document format for specific forms and submissions ➢This requirement creates challenges for international users and cross-platform compatibility ➢https://www.q-net.or.kr/cst006.do?id=cst00602 &gSite=Q&gId=
16. Still Using the HWP Format ➢Only hwp file is provided ➢https://www.korean.go.kr/front/ board/boardStandardView.do;front =D690744AE7EBD4F30734771FDC7 878FD?board_id=6&b_seq=1008& mn_id=184
17. LibreOffice status in South Korea ➢In South Korea, LibreOffice users have few ➢Many Korean submit some Korean bugs (However, CJK developer don’t understand ) ➢In the Office market, MS Office 70% : HWP 30% ➢Hancom(한글과 컴퓨터)'s HWP has an exclusive position in the public sector’s office market. ➢The reason is that under Korea law, Public sectors have to purchase only Korean company's software unless there is anything special
18. Difficult to access HWP files for expat in Korea ➢ Dan Bielefeld - Mapping Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea with FOSS – KDE Akademy 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzFXeg4UGU&t=1700s
19. HWP Formats ➢HWPML(.hml) Hancom’s 1st xml-based document spec, released in 1997 ← ➢HWP v3.0(.hwp) Supported by LibreOffice (Old binary format) ← ➢HWP v5.0(.hwp) Currently Popular Use in Korea, released in July 2010 ← ➢OWPML (.owpml) based HWPML, government guided xml based document specification, ← released in 2010 [registered KS X 6101 in 2011] ➢HWPX(.hwpx) re-generated xml-based document spec by Hancom ← ➢Recommend to use HWP program since 2021.04.15
20. HWP Format structures link ➢Hancom official site ➢(korean) HWP/OWPML 형식(format) https://www.hancom.co.kr/support/downloadCent er/hwpOwpml ➢한/글 문서 파일 형식 : HWPX 포맷 구조 살펴보기(hwp document format: look at hwpx format structure) https://tech.hancom.com/hwpxformat/ ➢Hancom released open source : https://developer.hancom.com/opensources ➢ClamAV 0.99.1: Hangul Word Processor (HWP) Document Support​ ➢https://blog.clamav.net/2016/03/clamav-0991-hangul-word-processor-hwp.html
21. HWP3.0(Binary file) – LibreOffice & MS Office can read HWP v3.0 (use HWP97 program)
22. HWP v5.0 – current HWP file format. Binary file + zip format
23. HWPX – XML based zip file, contents located in Contents/section0.xml
24. HWP Issue in South Korea Problem Impact Proprietary & binary format Security risks, malware injection Forced use by government Accessibility barriers Lack of ODF adoption Global interoperability issues Limited cross-platform support Linux & overseas users, expats in Korea users excluded Unreadability of binary Slower processing and analysis for AI HWP Issue
25. HWP Issue - Vulnerabilities ➢HWP as an Attack Surface: What Hancom’s Hangul Word Processor Means for South Korea’s Cyber Posture as a US Ally https://www.38north.org/2025/10/hwp-as-an-attack- surface-what-hancoms-hangul-word-processor-means-for-south-koreas-cyber-posture-as-a-us- ally/ ➢HWP’s legacy architecture and closed specification increase its exploitability and espionage risk. ➢ClamAV 0.99.1: Hangul Word Processor (HWP) Document Support https://blog.clamav.net/2016/03/clamav-0991-hangul-word-processor-hwp.html ➢The documents’ specialization in Korean make it a highly popular format used in South Korea with the government being a notable example. As popular format, it is subjected to possibly malicious content ➢[주의]한글 문서(HWP)취약점을 이용한 악성파일 발견 [Warning] Malicious File Discovered Exploiting Vulnerability in HWP Documents https://isarc.tachyonlab.com/176
26. Growing Demand for ODF Adoption ➢Many institutions argue that the South Korea government should adopt ODF more actively ➢However, these remain recommendations only without concrete implementation – 과실연 AI포럼 "공공 AI 전환, HWP PDF · 관행부터 깨야"…정부 혁신 '시동'(AI Policy Forum emphasized the need to break away from HWP/PDF dependency in government services.) https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20251013 093000 – 미국 EU · 는 ‘읽히는 문서’ 만든다…한국만 독자 포맷 고수(U.S. and EU prioritize machine-readable and interoperable document formats, while Korea continues to rely on its own proprietary format) https://it.chosun.com/news/a rticleView.html?idxno=2023092144199
27. Barriers to ODF Use in Korea Law ➢Mandatory use HWP, HWPX, or doc, docx(OOXML) file. However, There is no indication to use ODT(ODF) file. ➢ South Korea Intellectual Property Office’s notice https://www.law.go.kr/행정규칙/전자문서 제출파일의형식및재전자화에관한고시/(2025-4,20251030)/제6조
28. Barriers to ODF Use in Korea Law ➢Use hwp, gul, doc, xls, etc ➢However, There is no indication to use ODT file format ➢https://www.law.go.kr/법령별표서식/(지정공증인 의 사무처리 등에 관한 규칙,20220207,별표0)
29. LibreOffice Korean Community Status
30. Current status ➢LibreOffice Korean Community has not been highly active ➢Due to my family issues, my heavy tasks ➢Nevertheless, I promote and advocate for ODF adoption ➢Additionally, a Korean developer released the “H2Orestart” extension, HWP 5.0 & HWPX file viewer on LibreOffice
31. My LibreOffice & ODF Promotions ➢2024 ➢DebConf24: Workshop: Introduction to LibreOffice Korean Translations (Wiki & UI) https://speakerdeck.com/studioego/debconf24-workshop-introduction-to-l ibreoffice-korean-translations-wiki-and-ui ➢[openSUSE Asia 2024 Summit] My FLOSS project contributions and promotions experience in South Korea https://speakerdeck.com/studioego/ope nsuse-asia-2024-summit-my-floss-project-contributions-and-promotions-experi ence-in-south-korea
32. My LibreOffice & ODF Promotions ➢2025 ➢[UbuCon Korea 2025] 리브레오피스 소개 및 문서 표준과 ODF(Introduction to LibreOffice & Document Standard, ODF) https://speakerdeck.com/studioego/ubucon-kor ea-2025-ribeureopiseu-sogae-mic-munseo-pyojungwa-odf ➢[파이콘 한국 2025 Day1] 라이트닝토크: ODF, HWPX 그리고 LibreOffice Asia 2025 홍보 [PyCon Korea 2025 Day1] Lightning talk: ODF, HWPX and promote LibreOffice Asia 2025 https://speakerdeck.com/studioego/paikon-hangug-2025-raiteuningtokeu-odf-hwpx-ge urigo-libreoffice-asia-2025-hongbo ➢[FOSS for All] 리브레오피스 소개 및 문서 표준과 ODF (Introduction to LibreOffice & ODF, Document standards in Korea) https://speakerdeck.com/studioego/foss-for-all-ribe ureopiseu-sogae-mic-munseo-pyojungwa-odf-introduction-to-libreoffice-and-odf-docum ent-standards-in-korea
33. PyCon Korea 2025 Lightning talk ➢Python-based Retrieval of ODF, HWPX, and DOCX content ➢Content can be easily extracted from any file using an XML+ZIP structure ➢Repository: https://github.com/studioego/pyconkr2025_odf_hwpx_example ➢Implemented Python code to read ODF, HWPX, and DOCX contents ➢Simply open the ZIP package and parse the XML files inside
34. H2Orestart ➢LibreOffice extension that enables reading Hancom files(HWP v5.0 & HWPX) ➢Site: https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/27504 ➢Repository: https://github.com/ebandal/H2Orestart ➢However, hwp binary format reading module wrapped java class file
35. Open hwp file both HWP2024 and LibreOffice with H2Orestart
36. Open hwpx file both HWP2024 and LibreOffice with H2Orestart
37. FOSS for All Conference 2025 – “H2O restart” extension developer gave a presentation on November 8
38. Korean Language & CJK Issue in LibreOffice
39. Korean Language ➢Korean is the language spoken in the Korean Peninsula of Northeast Asia ➢It is the official and national language of both koreas(North & South) ➢Multiple writing systems in use: ➢Hangul 한글(Syllable): 가갸거겨고교구규그기나냐너녀 ➢Jamo 자모(Hangul’s elemental consonant/vowel letters): ➢자음(consonant letters): ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ ➢모음(vowel letters): ㅏㅑㅓㅕㅗㅛㅜㅠㅡㅣ ➢Hanja(한자/漢字, Chinese characters): 天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒 日月盈仄 辰宿列張 ➢Latin Script: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
40. Korean Hangul basic Syllable table for Kids
41. Example of Korean multiple writing system – Korean Hangul(한글 Syllable), Hanja(漢字 Chinese character), Alphabet
42. Korean Language Korean and Japanese follows an S+O+V grammatical structure English & Chinese follows an S+V+O word order This difference makes cross-language translation difficult Reference: https://x.com/sunjun_kim/status/1 901538051148464264 Grammatical Differences Between Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English
43. Korean & CJK Issues ➢Korean & Japanese adapted, use Chinese characters[Ideographs] ➢However, Both Korean & Japanese grammar structures are different from Chinese that ➢Chinese : S + V + O (subject-verb-object word order) ➢Korean & Japanese: S + O + V (subject-object-verb word order) ➢Korean & Japanese use postposition particle(a word that is attached to the back of another word to indicate the word’s grammatical role or to add special meaning) ➢Korean: josa조사( 助詞), Japanese: joshi 助詞
44. Korean & CJK Issues ➢English: I ate a meal – I (Subject) ate(Verb) a meal(Object) ➢Chinese: 我吃了飯/我吃了饭 w ch le fàn ǒ ī ➢我(I – Subject ) 吃了(ate – Verb ) 飯/饭(meal - Object) ➢Korean:나는 밥을 먹었어 na-neun bab-eul meog-eoss-eo ➢나(I) 는(postposition particle) 밥(meal - Object)을(postposition particle) 먹었어(ate - Verb) ➢Japanese: 私はご飯を食べた watashiwa gohan o tabeta ➢私(I)は(postposition particle)ご飯(meal - Object)を(postposition particle)食べた(ate - Verb)
45. Korean & CJK Issues ➢Hanja Issue ➢京(meaning: capital) Chinese Korean Japanese Sound 音 Meaning 뜻/훈(訓) Sound 소리/음(音) Meaning 訓読み Sound 音読み jīng 서울 Seoul 경 gyeong みやこ miyako 呉音 : キョウ (kyou) 漢音 : ケイ(kei) 唐音 : キン(kin)
46. Korean & CJK Issues ➢Hanja Issue ➢京(meaning: capital) – read “경 Gyeong” ➢Korean: Almost use reading “sound part” ➢Except. Korean-made Hanja 乭 돌(meaning: stone), number 五 (meaing 5,다섯 ‘da-seot’, sound: 오 ‘o’ ) ➢Alphago against go-player name Lee se-dol 이세돌(李世乭) ➢Japanese: sometimes reading “meaning parts” or “Sound parts”
47. Korean & CJK Issues ➢Example of CJK Issue(Fallback font issue) ➢Many of Korean fonts do not have certain Ideographs * Simplified Chinese 铁 (Korean: 鐵 철 cheol) 时 (Korean: 時 시 si) 须 (Korean: 須 수 su) 罩 (Korean: 조 jo, rarely used in Korean) * Japanese 鉄 (Korean:鐵 철 cheol) Social distance poster in Seoul Metro Station
48. Korean Issues ➢W3C document: Requirements for Hangul Text Layout and Typography ➢한국어 텍스트 레이아웃 및 타이포그래피를 위한 요구사항 ➢https://w3c.github.io/klreq/ ➢There are many easily noticeable bugs in LibreOffice’s Korean text layout and typography
49. Korean Issues ➢Korean text layout characters(such as Hangul, Hanja, etc) have zero space between characters by default ➢Bug 136663 - Disable "Apply spacing between Asian and non-Asian text" option by default for Korean users https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=136663 ➢W3C's Requirements for Hangul Text Layout and Typography : 한국어 텍스트 레이아웃 및 타이포그래피를 위한 요구사항 https://w3c.github.io/klreq/ ➢3.3 Hangul and Latin Mixed Writing (Including Partial Horizontal Writing in Vertical Writing) 한글 및 로마자 섞어짜기(세로 짜기 중 일부 가로 짜기 옵션 포함) https://w3c.github.io/klreq/#hangulromanmix
50. Korean Issues ➢Korean text layout characters(such as Hangul, Hanja, etc) have zero space between characters by default ➢Example) Left. LibreOffice(wrong), Right. MS PowerPoint(correct)
51. Korean Issues This slide file(ODP) made by MS Powerpoint. Because, Korean fallback font setting is wrong. The fallback font uses “Microsoft YaHei”, which is not used in Korean. In Korean document, use half-width punctuation for horizontal writing
52. Korean Issues – fixed issue ➢ Bug 167740 - Korean input duplication bug in Calc — last syllable repeats (e.g., “민기야” becomes “민기야야”) https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi ?id=167740 ➢ LibreOffice 25.2.5.2 Bug Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28_AjCmlg8 M ➢ Expected result: The cell shows “민기야” ➢ Actual result: The cell shows “민기야야” — the last syllable is duplicated
53. Korean Issues – Vertical Writing ➢In East Asian regions(CJK), Many East Asian(CJK) scripts can be written in the horizontal or vertical manner ➢Example of CJK Vertical Writing ➢1. From top to bottom ➢2. Ordered from right to left ① ②
54. Korean Issues – Vertical Writing ➢Vertical writing manual for Korean – 국립국어원(國立國語院National Institute of the Korean Language)’s Korean vertical writing manual http://kornorms.korean.go.kr/regltn/popup/regltnNtfcView.do? regltn_code=0001&ntfc_no=6&ntfc_hist_no=1001 – W3C Standard: Requirements for Hangul Text Layout and Typography : 한국어 텍스트 레이아웃 및 타이포그래피를 위한 요구사항 https://www.w3.org/TR/klreq/ – Styling vertical Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian texthttps://www.w3.org/International/articles/vertical-text/ – Unicode Vertical Text Layout https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr50/ ➢There are many easily noticeable bugs in LibreOffice’s Korean vertical layout
55. Example of Vertical Writing
56. Example of HWP Vertical Writing template
57. Bug 132926 - Change Punctuations(comma & period) for Korean vertical writting text layout https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=132926
58. Result In South Korea, ODF is legally recognized document standard spec, but still not fully adopted in practice on the public sector 01 Korean Community is still inactive stage Nevertheless, ODF advocacy and promotion efforts are gradually increasing 02 Korean Language issues in LibreOffice largely come from CJK complexities and lack of localized testing, developer's lack of understanding, lack of Korean participation, etc 03
59. Thank you! 고맙습니다! 谢谢/謝謝 ありがとうございます。