Revised Romanization of Korean
Almost all road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs, etc. have been changed according to Revised Romanization of Korean ("RR", also called "South Korean" or "Ministry of Culture (MC) 2000"). It is estimated to have cost at least 500 billion won to 600 billion won (US$500~600 million) to carry out this procedure. All Korean textbooks, maps and signs to do with cultural heritage were required to comply with the new system by 28 February 2002. Romanization of surnames and existing companies' names has been left untouched because of the reasons explained below. However, the Korean government encourages using the revised romanization of Korean for the new names.