hankyoreh

Korean writer Han Kang. (Yonhap)

“I believe in the values of life, liberty and peace, which must never be harmed. To remove [Yoon] from office is to protect universal values,” the Nobel laureate Han Kang wrote in a statement released Tuesday. 

Amid the delay in the Constitutional Court’s verdict in the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk-yeol, 414 Korean poets, novelists, children’s book authors, playwrights, and manhwa artists issued a statement calling for Yoon’s removal from office. 

The joint statement issued by the writers on Tuesday said, “The Constitutional Court’s impeachment verdict regarding the removal of Yoon Suk-yeol from his post as president is being delayed for no reason.” 

“It cannot be delayed for any longer. There is no other decision than removal from office. There can be no other decision,” the writers declared.

Han Kang’s statement, which was published alongside those from hundreds of other Korean literary figures.

It’s rare for writers spanning various genres, people who normally focus on their personal creative work, to unite behind a single cause without the organization of groups like the Writers Association of Korea, which was at the forefront of South Korea’s democratization movement in the 1980s. 

This also marked Han Kang’s first public statement since winning the Nobel Prize for literature. Among the 414 writers who signed the statement, many of them were born in the 1990s and 2000s. 

Apart from the joint statement, the writers each added their own personal statements. Poet Kim Hye-soon, who lived through the martial law of the late 1970s, said, “Please, let us no longer be an embarrassment to the world.” 

The poet Kim Hye-soon. (Hankyoreh file photo)

Children’s book author and illustrator Lee Suzy, the first Korean to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2022), said, “All of us are enduring dark times quietly in our various stations in life. I remind myself every day. What importance are books, my work, art, right now?! I demand the immediate removal of Yoon Suk-yeol — for the democracy that we’ve defended with all our hearts, for common-sense everyday life, and for us all.” 

The poet Ra Hee-duck said, “We can no longer leave the country to the wicked Yoon Suk-yeol and the prosecutorial authorities. Constitutional Court, remove the insurrection ringleader from office!” 

The novelist Kim Yeon-su wrote, “May our nights be filled with justice and peace by this time next week at the latest.”

The novelist Kim Cho-yeop said, “I demand Yoon’s quick removal, please. I’m so stressed I can’t write a word these days. Quickly, please!” 

Baek Hee-na, the author of “Magic Candies” and other works, who became the first Korean to be awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, said, “I request that the Constitutional Court remove President Yoon Suk-yeol from office.” 

The illustrator and author Lee Suzy. (courtesy of BIRS)

The writers expressed their concerns about the actions of the far right and violent groups that have coincided with the verdict’s delay. 

“The mental and economic damage wrought by the extreme social chaos is falling squarely on the people,” the joint statement read.

“As writers who want the insurrection to end and democracy to be restored, we gathered to make our voices heard,” the statement added.

“A total of 414 of us united behind the cause of ‘Writers Demanding the Removal of Yoon Suk-yeol from Office.’”

In related news, 2,487 figures from the Korean literary world issued a statement saying, “Right now, speed is justice! The Constitutional Court should immediately remove Yoon from office!” The statement was issued to coincide with the end of the hunger strike of Song Kyung-dong, the secretary general of the Writers Association of Korea. 

Representatives of 2,487 Korean literary figures call for President Yoon Suk-yeol to be ousted outside of a sit-in tent by the Writers Association of Korea in Gwanghwamun on March 25, 2025. (courtesy of Kim Myung-hwan)

By Im In-tack, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]