Kim Jun Tae (1948—) is a South Korean poet. His poetry generally unfolds in hometowns and rural villages and is an ode to the vitality of nature and the revolutionary power of the people. He became famous for his poem, “Aa gwangjuyeo, urinaraui sipjagayeo” (아아 광주여, 우리나라의 십자가여 Gwangju, Cross of Our Nation) which testified to the horrors of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. [1] It was published on the front page of the daily regional newspaper and was later translated into both English and Japanese. [2] He is the deputy director of the National Literature Authors Association and the director of the May 18 Memorial Foundation.
