What is an HWP file?

HWP (Hangul Word Processor) is the native document format of Hancom Office — the de-facto standard word processor of South Korea's government, schools, and much of its business world.

Why does Korea use it?

한글 (Hangul) has been the dominant Korean word processor since the 1990s, with typography deeply optimized for the Korean writing system. Government agencies standardized on it, so official documents, forms, and press releases are still published as .hwp or .hwpx today.

HWP vs HWPX

• .hwp — the older binary format (HWP version 5).
• .hwpx — the newer XML-based, standardized format; what recent government documents use.

How do I open one?

Outside Korea, almost nothing opens HWP natively — see your options compared. The quickest way is right below: view it in your browser and export to PDF or Word-ready text.