South Korean author Han Kang wins 2024 Nobel Prize in literature

Han Kang (Changbi Publishers)

South Korean author Han Kang has won this year's Nobel Prize in literature, becoming the first South Korean to be honored with one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.

The Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee announced the winner Thursday in Stockholm.

Han was recognized “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life,” said Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.

The committee said that "In her oeuvre, Han confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connection between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose."

Han became the 121st laureate of the prestigious award and the 18th woman to receive the illustrious prize. She is also the first Asian female winner.

Her win marks a historic moment for South Korea, 24 years after then-President Kim Dae-jung was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.

The 53-year-old writer has garnered global recognition for her powerful exploration of suffering and resilience, winning the International Booker Prize in 2016 for "The Vegetarian," which was also a first for a Korean.

Her other notable works include "Human Acts" (2014), "The White Book" (2016), a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2018, and "We Do Not Part" (2021), which earned her France’s Prix Medicis for foreign literature last year.

The Nobel Prize in literature, awarded annually by the Swedish Academy, comes with a prize of 11 million Swedish krona ($1.06 million) in recognition of the writer’s outstanding body of work.

The prize awarding ceremony will be held in Stockholm, on Dec. 10.

By Hwang Dong-hee(hwangdh@heraldcorp.com)