[News Today] HAN KANG WINS NOBEL PRIZE IN LIT

[LEAD]
Renowned for 'The Vegetarian', and 'Human Acts' author Han Kang has clinched this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. She is the first Korean and the first female Asian to achieve this honor. Her work and contribution have drawn significant attention from international media.

[REPORT]
"South Korean author, Han Kang."

This year's Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Han Kang.

She becomes the first female Asian writer to win the prestigious award and only the second Korean to receive the honor following the late President Kim Dae-jung's Nobel Peace Prize.

The Swedish Academy said Han was chosen for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.

Anders Olsson/ Chair, Nobel Committee for Literature
She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style, has become an innovator in contemporary prose.

Han Kang, who heard the news on the phone at her home in Seoul, said she was very surprised and felt honored.

She added that she grew up with Korean literature, so she hopes this news uplifts Korean literature readers as well as her friends and writers.

Han Kang/ Writer
All their efforts and all their strengths, they have been my inspirations.

She recommended 'We Do Not Part', 'The White Book', and 'The Vegetarian' as starters for readers who are yet familiar with her works.

She also said that 'The Vegetarian', which gave her worldwide attention, was the product of three years of struggle.

Han Kang/ Writer
I was struggling to find the images of this protagonist. Trees and some nights and everything was so vivid.

Global news outlets and publishing houses also gave major coverage to the news of Han Kang winning the award.

AP wrote that Han wins the Nobel prize at a time of growing global influence of South Korean culture. And Reuters reported that her father was also a writer and that she came from a literary background.

The Booker Prizes for British Literature, which had awarded her the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, giving her an international breakthrough, called it an enormous news. Also, the British publisher of her stories congratulated her by saying that she is an amazing writer unlike any other.