Gunnar Gällmo wrote:

> I think that is true about Japanese, and I suppose it
> has been so for Korean; but if I am correctly
> informed, modern Korean is written with an
> alphabetical script not used for any other language.

You are referring to hangul, a syllabic script invented in Korea in the
middle ages, to be used to notate the elements of Korean which cannot be
represented by Chinese characters. Presently, I believe that North Korea
uses only hangul and has completely eliminated Chinese characters, whereas
South Korea still widely uses Chinese characters mixed with hangul. As with
Japanese, it is possible to write entirely with the native syllabaries but
there would be a lot of ambiguity. A sparse use of Chinese characters would
also be a sign of quasi-illiteracy in these societies.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge