Novelist Choi In-hun Dies of Cancer

Novelist Choi In-hun died of colorectal cancer at the age of 84 on Monday. Choi described literary writing as a "thought experiment" and probed the ideological conflicts and angst of intellectuals in modern Korea through his works.

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His best-known novel, "The Square" published in 1960, was a critical examination of the division of the two Koreas, told from the perspective of an intellectual who attempts to reconcile the Cold War ideological conflicts that divide the Korean Peninsula.

The book is considered a "must-read" modern literary work. It tells the story of a young South Korean man who defects to the North immediately after the division of the peninsula, but becomes a prisoner of war while fighting for the North during the Korean War. After the armistice, the protagonist grows disgusted with both sides and decides to leave for a third country, India, only to commit suicide by throwing himself into the ocean on the way.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism will posthumously award Choi the Geumgwan medal, the nation's highest order of cultural merit.