In September 2001 at the UNESCO Symposium on “Language in Cyberspace” in Seoul , Dr. Sek Yen Kim-Cho, Professor of Korean studies and Phonetics, presented a paper entitled “ Possibility of the Universal Applicability of Hwunmin Cengum , the Korean Alphabet of 1446,” Hwunmin Cengum means Ortho-Phonic Alphabet (OPA) for the Instruction of the People . ” Dr. Victor Montviloff, vice chair of the symposium, made a comment that “ This Korean Alphabet Nurigeul is the best phonetic alphabet for the transliteration of the global language .” The Global Script Nurigeul is a combined name of the Korean words Nuri(Globe) and Geul(Script). The formal term of Nurigeul in the Unicode (ISO 10646) is “ Hangeuljamo .” Due to the potential for solving the illiteracy problem, Nurigeul had attracted the attention of UNESCO which recognized its efficiency and significance, and declared it the “Memory of the World” in 1997.

Dr. Christian Galinski, chair of the symposium on “Language in Cyberspace,” also made the remark that “ This certainly is a Universally Applicable Phonetic Alphabet. ”

After hearing those comments, Dr. Kim-Cho said that “It was my ardent wish to see this Nurigeul (OPA) adopted by the UNESCO as Universal Character Set or Official Global Script ”. Then both Dr. Galinski and Dr. Montvillof advised Dr. Kim-Cho to conduct her case studies in the field of minority languages with no writing system and submit the results. If the results are successful they would consider adopting the “OPA-Nurigeul” as “Global Script,” i.e., the universally applicable phonetic alphabet.

The Japanese computer specialist Mr. Kobayashi, who took part in the conference, was also a strong advocate of the Universal Character Set (USC) as one simple formula for the universal access to the database in the Cyberspace.

Dr. Kim-Cho, after hearing the comments on the OPA, took their advice immediately and went to Southern China near the border of China , Vietnam and Thailand . The multi-tribes in the Provinces of WoonNam ( KunMing ), KuiJoo (KuiYang) and KwangSeo (KuiLin) didn't have any writing system at all. Even though some of them have the Bible written in the Chinese characters, they had no way of reading it, because 70 percent of Chinese are unable to read the Chinese characters. So, Dr. Kim-Cho has transliterated the New Testament of Chinese Bible into Nurigeul which they could learn in a matter of a few days.

In addition, she translated into Nurigeul part of the Mongolian Bible which was available in the Mongol Uigur Script. 92 percent of Inner Mongolians are illiterate, because they are hampered by the complicated Uigur Script.

As Nepal language also has a very complicated writing system, literacy program for non-literate Nepali people has begun since February 2004. Nepali people overwhelmingly accepted Nurigeul from a missionary whom Dr. Kim-Cho sent to teach Nurigeul. More and more Nepali people joined the Nurigeul training program, because the Nurigeul Mission Center in Seoul and Sejong Studies Institute in the USA have developed Nurigeul keyboard for the efficient typing and printing.

Another case study has begun for Inner Mongolian D Tribe located further north of Harbin , China from June 2004. A missionary who is enormously interested in Nurigeul was dispatched to teach Nurigeul to D Tribe people.

Two weeks of Nurigeul training course was held in Seoul for eight missionary groups from India , Bangladesh , Myanmar , Philippine, Pakistan , Ethiopia , Nepal and Kazakhstan staying in Seoul . All of them could read and write Nirigeul in four days and could write their own vernaculars with Nurigeul. They were very happy to be able to transcribe their own languages with Nurigeul. They were quite convinced that Nurigeul is the best alphabet to transcribe their languages for the literacy programs. Dr. Kim-Cho feels strongly that a Nurigeul Font Design for each language is needed for typing. According to her experiences with the Chinese language with even as many as 21 initial consonants and 35 finals, it is not a difficult job to design Nurigeul fonts.

One week of Nurigeul intensive course was held in Hong Kong for people from Mainland China , Taiwan , Macao and Korea in February 2004. Most of them were missionaries to be dispatched to the non-literate and preliterate people.

Dr. Kim-Cho also gave ‘Visiting University Program for Nurigeul Lecture' at various universities in Seoul and Daejeon. She even organized ‘Nurigeul-Literacy Corps' comparable to Peace Corp in Seoul . The college students trained there were dispatched to countries without writing system during the summer of 2002 and 2003.

After these activities have become organized and routine, it is no longer needed to personally visit all the countries who are in great need of Nurigeul. Instead, she worked out to teach Nurigeul to young students or missionaries who will be sent to developing countries. All they need is to take intensive Nurigeul training course which she occasionally supervise.

Ever since Dr. Kim-Cho begun the Nurigeul Mission Trip to the areas where majority of illiterate people are living, such as Deep South of China and South Asia, I could successfully test the efficiency of Nurigeul as “one simple formula” that can eradicate illiteracy in the shortest time. Now Kim-Cho is really certain that this Nurigeul is the only efficient and correct phonetic system for the Literacy Program.

Since then Kim-Cho has been working hard to verify that Nurieul is the best-fit script for the accurate transcription of Human Speech Sounds as well as for the Literacy Program.

Meanwhile Kim-Cho had the special pleasure that this Nurigeul was adopted by President Loren Cunningham of the University of the Nations at Kona , Hawaii to be used for the “Great Commission Literacy Project”. There are 55 University of the Nations and 550 Training centers in the world. Kim-Cho is expecting enormous positive responses from them.