I'm assuming the characters to the left represent the end of 'konichi-wa'? (Spelling?)
Each "box" represents a syllable, and a syllable always starts with a consonant followed by a vowel, with an optional closing syllable. But the first syllable, "a-n", has no opening consonant so they used "O" as a place-marker. "|-" is 'a', and "|__" is 'n'.
The second syllable "n-yo-ng" starts with "|__" again, followed by "=|" (yo) and "(=)" ( best I can do, 'ng').
Invented by King Won in the 1400s, they're quite proud of it. I was surprised when, looking at some text on a Samsung tower, I suddenly realized two particular characters in the string read "sam-sung."