The Korean moveable type seems to lack the transformative social impact of Gutenberg's invention despite appearing earlier, and it would appear that the sheer number of Chinese characters was the main limiting factor. Wikipedia has this to say on how the invention of hangul affected printing in Korea:
A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for 200 years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable-type invention in Europe—when Sejong the Great devised a simplified alphabet of 24 characters (hangul) for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and compositing process more feasible. But Korea's cultural elite, "appalled at the idea of losing hanja, the badge of their elitism", stifled the adoption of the new alphabet.
A "Confucian prohibition on the commercialization of printing" also obstructed the proliferation of movable type, restricting the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government. The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where the focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a conflict between dynasties.
Did elitism and cultural hangups completely stifle the development of mass printing in hangul? Were there major efforts within the gentry to introduce the moveable type to the wider society? Did either technology actually contribute to widespread literacy in Korea? The introduction of modern printing in the 19th century obviously didn't kill hanja right away, so I'm curious whether hangul ever managed to live up to its potentials with the earlier moveable type. Thank you very much in advance!
Hangul is the alphabet created by King Sejong.
Q. What is the purpose of making Hangul?
Major. For the people.
Minor. Hangul is easy to learn Chinese characters.
Minor. It was a useful tool for the middle class in real administration(strengthening the system).
Basis: When creating Han-gul, the way intellectuals write is by using a brush. However, Hangul does not need expensive tools such as brush, ink, and paper. At the extreme, Hangul can be written using twigs. This means that Han-gul was first made on the premise that it did not use a brush.
Q. What is the perception of Han-gul by the people of the time?
The nobility of Joseon had a tendency to despise sentences written in Hangul. BUT, Hangul itself was a feat of the dynasty(In Joseon and modern Korea, King Sejong is extremely respected.). With the exception of a few exceptions, nobles and royal families (including women) could use Hangeul. The nobles used Chinese characters to write official documents, and Han-gul to write private documents (letters, etc.).
Q. Who used Hangul?
Major. noble woman.
Minor. middle class.
Minor. the use of young aristocrats to learn Chinese characters easily.
Minor. military code.
Q. Why couldn't the printing press be used widely in Joseon?
This is a complicated problem. First of all, we need to know the purpose of the development of printing.
Gutenberg's printing came from a commercial motive. But printing in Joseon was developed for policy purposes to disseminate their studies. Joseon strongly believed that commercial development was the act of destroying the nation. Joseon despised the merchant. The ruling class of Joseon was absorbed in metaphysical philosophy. For them, books meant only academics, philosophy and history. All other books (fiction books, etc.) were considered dirty books that disturb society.
The ruling class of Joseon had an paranoid record of history. They have copied history books three to five times and set up data centers throughout the country in preparation for losing them due to war or fire. Thanks to their paranoids to preserve history, Korea has an overwhelming amount of Joseon records despite countless wars and looting. South Korea is not worried about the lack of data about Joseon, but about too much data. According to scholars, the documents written by Joseon's secretariat are expected to take 100 years to translate.
Another problem is that copper is needed to make a metal printing press, but copper has little yield in Joseon. Most have to import from Japan. As mentioned above, however, Joseon despised commerce and curbed international trade. The state is the only one who can afford this cost. And even if a civilian can afford it, his books will be censored by the state, and his life will be ruined if the book disturbs the spirits of the nobility. This vicious circle led to the monopoly on printing and publishing by the state. As a result, unlike the West, where metal type printing machines rapidly spread to the private sector, Joseon went to monopolize metal type printing machines and instead to solidify medieval order. Therefore, did the development of the printing press contribute to the eradication of illiteracy? The answer to is no.