Statue of King Sejong (Gwanghwamun)
The statue of King Sejong was dedicated on 9 October 2009, in a ceremony attended by attended by President Lee Myung-bak and other Korean government official, on a Hangul Day in celebration of the 563rd anniversary of the invention of the Korean alphabet by King Sejong, two months after the Gwanghwamun Plaza opening. The golden statue is 6.2 meters high (another source gives the statue height as 9.5 meters and yet another, 6.7 meters) and weights 20 tons. The king has one hand raised and another placed on a book. Sides of the statue display all of the hangul alphabet characters. In front of the statue there are small models of a celestial globe, a rain gauge, and a sundial, the invention of which is also traditionally attributed to King Sejong in Korea. While King Sejong is best remembered for his invention of hangul, he is also considered to have been involved in promotion of agriculture, literature, science and technology, as well as Confucian philosophy, in Korea.
Hangul
The explanation of the letter "ng" also differs from the traditional account. Many Chinese words began with "ng", but by King Sejong's day, initial "ng" was either silent or pronounced in China, and was silent when these words were borrowed into Korean. Also, the expected shape of "ng" (the short vertical line left by removing the top stroke of ) would have looked almost identical to the vowel . Sejong's solution solved both problems: The vertical stroke left from was added to the null symbol to create (a circle with a vertical line on top), iconically capturing both the pronunciation in the middle or end of a word, and the usual silence at the beginning. (The graphic distinction between null and "ng" was eventually lost.)