Hong Seok-jung

HONG SEOK-JUNG (1941- ). Hong, a novelist and short story writer in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was born in Seoul, now the capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK). The family moved from Seoul to what is now the DPRK after 1945, and his grandfather, Hong Myeong-hui (1888-1968), also a novelist, became a respected writer who was eventually buried in the Revolutionary Martyrs' cemetery in Pyongyang. Hong Seok-jung served in the DPRK navy and then studied at Kim Il Sung University. His first published work, a short story titled "Red Flower," appeared in 1970. His most successful work was the novel Northeaster, which appeared on 1993. In 2002, he published a historical novel set in the 17th century, Hwangjini; which became the first novel published in the DPRK to win an ROK literary prize in 2005.

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