Huh Keun-Wook (1930~2017) was a South Korean novelist.
1. Life
Huh Keun-Wook was born in Seoul in 1930 to lawyer and independence activist Huh Hun and Yoo Deok-hee (also known as Yoo Moon-sik). Her father, Huh Hun, was a lawyer who took part in the Korean independence movement during the Japanese occupation. While defending independence activists, Huh Hun met Yoo Deok-hee, an activist with Singanhoe and Geunwoohoe based in Sinchon, South Hwanghae Province. Keun-Wook was their first child.
Huh graduated from Ewha Girls' High School and went on to study English Literature at Ewha Womans University. She remained in Seoul with her family after the liberation until the family went North with Huh Hun, who was chairman of the Workers' Party of South Korea. In 1950 she studied at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies. Her father went on to become Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, while her elder half-sister Heo Jeong-suk also went on to serve multiple offices, including the Minister of Health and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Korea.
Huh Keun-Wook, meanwhile, fled to the South with her husband Park No-mun in search of freedom, literary and otherwise. She was reunited briefly with her family that June, but fled South with her husband and son during the Third Battle of Seoul. She lived under an assumed name for a while, but was arrested on suspicion of being a spy along with her husband in 1959. She was found innocent and acquitted the same year. She served on multiple boards for women's rights and societies dedicated to the reunification of Korea while continuing her career as a writer. She worked for KBS as a writer and consultant until her retirement in December 1989.
2. Writing
While working in the KBS writers' room in 1959, Huh made her literary debut with the autobiographical novel Naega seol ttangeun eodinya (내가 설 땅은 어디냐 Where is My Country?) in 1960. She went on to publish such works as Huin byeok geomeun byeok (흰 벽 검은 벽 White Walls, Black Walls), Mengganamu yeolmae iyagi (멩가나무 열매 이야기 Fruits of the Menga Tree), and Kkeunnaji anneun gyeoul (끝나지 않는 겨울 Endless Winter). In 2001, she published a biography of her father, Minjokbyeonhosa heoheon (민족변호사 허헌 Huh Hun, Lawyer of the People), which was well received as a candid portrait from her unique perspective as his daughter. Huh's debut work, Where is My Country?, was adapted into a film in 1964 by the director Pyeon Keo-young and released that April in Seoul. In November 1987, her novel Mengganamu yeolmae iyagi was adapted for the stage as a dance production.
Huh did not directly address the issue of division or ideology in her work, given the sensitive nature of her family background. As demonstrated by her own early history of conflict between ideology and integrity of her own life, choosing the South over her father, however, she has always had a keen interest in the division of the nation and the healing of families. While never mentioned explicitly, regret for the political situation of the country and longing for her family can be read in her works. Where is My Country? is a representative example of her work in that it showcases the author's frustration and anger with both Koreas, the many hardships she endured, the longing for her family after the war and disgust at the violence of ideology.
