The January 2026 issue of the monthly magazine Woopyo (우표), which serves as the 720th edition for the Philatelic Federation of Korea, offers a rich collection of research and reporting for the international community. The issue opens with a New Year’s Address (신년사) by the President of the Philatelic Federation of Korea, Cho Kwon-haeng (조권행), who reflects on the success of the Philakorea 2025 World Stamp Exhibition and outlines the organization’s goals for 2026. A key objective for the year is the further internationalization of Korean philately, specifically through a project coordinated by Jin Hur (허진) to translate the Korean Postage Stamp Specialized Catalogue into English in collaboration with the Korea Stamp Society (한국우표협회).
Historical research remains a dominant theme, starting with an in-depth study titled Plum Blossom Definitive Stamps: Investigating Everything from Alpha to Omega (이화 보통우표에 대한 알파와 오메가 그 모든 것을 규명해 보자) by Nam Sang-wook (남상욱). This article provides a rigorous academic analysis of the first stamps produced entirely with Korean personnel and equipment, correcting historical errors regarding printing methods and documenting the transition from letterpress to lithography. This is followed by Regular Postcards After the ‘Hwan’ Currency (‘환(圜)’화 이후 통상엽서) by Lee Dong-sik (이동식), which examines the 1953 “Goose” design postcards. The author identifies three distinct typeface variations of the Korean text and discusses the technical challenges of early post-war production. Further expanding on postal history, Kim Young-kil (김영길) contributes an Overview of Old Korean Postal History (구한국 우정사 개관), focusing on the provisional post office system established in 1898 in the Gyeongsangbuk-do region.
