President, politicians from across the aisle congratulate Han Kang on Nobel Prize

President Yoon Suk Yeol called author Han Kang’s Nobel Prize a “historic achievement for Korean literature and a national milestone that all Koreans should celebrate” in a congratulatory message Thursday evening.

People watch a television broadcast about Korean author Han Kang winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature at Seoul Station in central Seoul on Thursday. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol called author Han Kang’s Nobel Prize a “historic achievement for Korean literature and a national milestone that all Koreans should celebrate” in a congratulatory message Thursday evening.

The president’s message, which was uploaded to his Facebook page shortly after the Nobel Committee’s announcement, described Han as a writer who had “sublimely transfigured the painful wounds of our modern history into a great literary work” through “poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and reveals the fragility of human life.”

The president’s congratulatory message was one of many that poured in as politicians from both sides of the aisle temporarily set aside the country’s fractious politics and expressed their jubilation.

Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Min Hyoung-bae, a member of the parliamentary Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, called for those present at an audit meeting at the National Assembly to offer a round of applause after the prize announcement.

The committee chair, DP Rep. Jeon Jae-su, subsequently paused the meeting to draw attention to Han’s receipt of the prize, which he noted “marked the first time since late President Kim Dae-jung that a Korean had been awarded a Nobel Prize.”

An official website of the Nobel Prize shows Han Kang as a winner of the prize in literature. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

According to people present, the committee chamber then erupted with cheers and applause.

Han Dong-hoon, chairman of the conservative People Power Party, wrote on Facebook that he had first encountered Han during her stint as a host on a audio book reading program run by EBS Radio and said he “still sometimes listens to her quiet but emphatic voice.”

Han also said that he planned to listen again to one of the audio books read aloud by Han, adding, “Who knew such a day would come?”

In a post on Facebook, DP leader Lee Jae-myung expressed his hope that Han’s Nobel Prize “would provide great encouragement to the people.”

He added that the news gave him “the kind of thrill that envelopes the whole body” and offered his congratulations to Han for “healing the triumphs and lows of Korea’s modern history through literature.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]