The Modern Novel

Biography

Paek Nam-nyong was born in Hamhŭng, North Korea in 1949. His father was a freight driver, who was killed by a US bomb in 1949. His writing was influenced not only by Korean writers but by the classics of English, French, Russian and US literature. He worked as a lathe turner in a machine factory for many years before publishing a story and then enrolling at Kim Il Sung University. He worked in the Writer’s Union and later joined the elite group of writers called April 15th Literary Production Unit, an elite group whose primary task is to write historical novels based on the lives and accomplishments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

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