hankyoreh

Park Wan-suh, a representative South Korean female novelist and essayist who delved into post-Korean War realities of ordinary people, died of gallbladder cancer on Saturday. She was 80.

Park has been suffering the disease in recent years and died earlier in the morning, leaving behind four daughters, according to her acquaintances.

Born in what is now a North Korean village bordering the South in 1931, Park became a housewife-turned-novelist at the age of 40 when her long story “Namok,” Bare Tree, won a contest. She celebrated last year her 40th anniversary as a novelist.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced progressive South Korean pastor Han Sang-ryol on Friday to five years in jail for unauthorized visit to North Korea.

61-year-old pro-unification activist Rev. Han was arrested and indicted last summer shortly after he walked cross the inter-Korean border back to the South by foot on Aug. 20 after more than two-month stay in the North. He entered Pyongyang by air on June 12.

The Seoul Western District Court Friday issued an arrest warrant for Taekwang Group Chairman Lee Ho-jin on charges of creating a slush fund to bribe government officials and politicians for business favors, saying, “There is a possibility that he could destroy evidence.”

Lee has been suspected of embezzlement of 42.4 billion Won ($38 million) in company money and caused damages to his company by purchasing shares of affiliates below market prices.

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