Kim Sungjong was born in Jinan, China, and grew up in Gurye, South Jeolla Province. He graduated from Yonsei University with a degree in political science, after which he worked as a journalist. He began his career as a novelist in 1974 when his Choehuui jeungin (최후의 증인 The Last Witness) won the Hankook Ilbo 20th Anniversary Literary Prize.
1. Life
Kim established himself as one of the founding fathers of detective fiction in Korea, with sports papers and daily newspapers serializing his work throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Most of these works became bestsellers, so much so that Kim's heyday is considered to have ushered in a golden age in Korean detective fiction. Kim's epic Yeomyeongui nundongja (여명의 눈동자 Eyes of Dawn) (1977) was also adapted as a smash hit for television. Kim's success is attributed to his steady presence in sports papers with a largely male readership. The popularity of Yeomyeongui nundongja was such that Ilgan Sports, its publisher, commissioned another work from Kim, leading to the unprecedented situation of two works by the same author being serialized in the paper at the same time.
2. Writing
Of the new work thus commissioned, Je oyeol (제 5열 The Fifth Column), Kim describes it as a radical departure from his style of detective fiction. Far from a traditional whodunnit, Je oyeol features criminal organizations, international politics, and terrorism in a fast-paced narrative unlike anything seen in Korean detective fiction before. Kim's works published between the late 1970s and 1980s are largely centered around the transformation of an ordinary male protagonist into a powerful character, with the hero of Je oyeol, in particular, symbolizing the rise of the country and its people to power. Meanwhile, much of Kim's work observes the strategy of killing off the protagonist at the end. This strategy is apparent in Choehuui jeungin (1974), Je oyeol (1978), and Burangui gang (부랑의 강 Wandering River) (1979), all from the same period. According to Gimseongjong ilgi (김성종 읽기Reading Kim Sungjong), a monograph on Kim's work, Kim's style is informed by a visual, cinematographic approach to language.
LTI Korea 
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