South Koreans are joyful after Han Kang wins Nobel Prize for literature

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Koreans reacted with joy and astonishment on Thursday after learning that homegrown writer Han Kang won the Nobel Prize in literature, an unexpected moment that stoked national pride about the country’s growing cultural influence.

Han, known for her experimental and often disturbing stories that explore human traumas and violence and incorporate the brutal moments of South Korea’s modern history, is the country’s first writer to win the preeminent award in world literature.

Han's triumph adds to the growing global influence of South Korean culture, which in recent years included the successes of director Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite,” the brutal Netflix survival drama “Squid Game” and K-pop groups like BTS and BLACKPINK.

“I’m so surprised and honored,” Han, 53, said in a telephone interview posted on the X account of the Nobel Prize.

As the news spread in South Korea, some online bookstores temporarily froze following a sudden jump in traffic. South Korean social media were flooded with jubilant messages expressing admiration and pride. Some internet users found it meaningful that Han was the first Asian woman to win the award and portrayed it as a statement toward the country’s traditionally male-dominated literature scene.

“It’s always the women who do the big things,” one Facebook user wrote.

In South Korea’s parliament, multiple government hearings were paused as lawmakers cheered and applauded Han’s award.

While visiting Laos for a meeting of Asian leaders, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement, congratulating Han on her award, calling it a “great achievement in the history of Korean literature” and a “special moment for the nation.”

“You converted the painful wounds of our modern history into great literature,” Yoon wrote. “I send my respects to you for elevating the value of Korean literature.”

Han, the daughter of renowned South Korean novelist Han Seung-won, made her publishing debut as a poet in 1993. She won the International Booker Prize in 2016 for the novel “The Vegetarian,” a story in which a woman’s decision to stop eating meat brings devastating consequences and raises concern among family members that she’s mentally ill. The book sold more than 100,000 in the U.S.

Another one of Han's well-known novels is “Human Acts,” which is set in 1980 in her birth city of Gwangju and follows a boy searching for the body of a friend who was killed in a violent suppression of a student protest. South Korea’s former military government that year sent troops to Gwangju for a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left around 200 people dead and hundreds of others injured.

“The decision came all too sudden. I could also describe it as a feeling of bewilderment,” Han Seung-won, Han’s father, told reporters Friday about the moment he heard the news that his daughter had won the Nobel Prize.

He praised his daughter's writing, which he described as poetic and exhibiting unique “fantastical realism," and also commended British translator Deborah Smith, who translated “The Vegetarian” and “The White Book."

“The translator has somehow managed to convey Han Kang’s sentences, bringing to life the delicate and beautiful prose and melancholic sensibility," he said.

Han Kang’s award generated excitement among South Korean writers and critics, who in comments to local media expressed hope that it would bring more global attention to South Korean literature. But it remains to be seen whether Han’s stories would become widely popular among casual readers around the world, said Brother Anthony of Taize, a British-born scholar and prolific translator of Korean literature.

“It’s not always an easy read,” he said, describing how her novels are often complicated stories about communication failures, misunderstandings, “unhappy people and troubled relationships and pain.”

If Han's works have anything in common with South Korea's other cultural products that garnered international acclaim in recent years, it is that they often reflect the dark side of the country’s society. Both Parasite and Squid Game provided biting commentaries on the country’s deepening inequality and other problems that have many young and poor people describing their lives as a hellish nightmare.

South Korea has one of the largest gaps between rich and poor among developed economies and is grappling with decaying job markets, soaring household debt and a record-low birth rate as struggling couples put off having babies. The country also struggles to deal with the pains of its brutal transition from dictatorship to democracy.

“Korean society is rather dark and it’s probably the aspect that resonates,” Brother Anthony said.

Jung Yoon-young, a 49-year-old resident in Seoul, said Han’s triumph was a refreshing moment for the country during depressing times.

“It’s a miraculous event and really a breath of fresh air,” she said. “I’m grateful and proud.”

South Korean author Han Kang poses for the media during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, on May 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

South Korean author Han Kang poses for the media during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, on May 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

South Korean author Han Kang speaks to the media during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, on May 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A book store employee holds a book by the South Korean writer Han Kang in London, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. Kang has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A TV screen shows a file image of the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean writer Han Kang, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen shows a file image of the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean writer Han Kang, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen shows a file image of the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean writer Han Kang, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean author Han Kang's books are displayed at a special section at a bookstore in Goyang, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. The letters read "Han Kang, Awarded the Nobel Prize in literature." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Workers display South Korean author Han Kang's books at a special section at a bookstore in Goyang, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. The letters read "Han Kang, Awarded the Nobel Prize in literature." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A woman holds a South Korean author Han Kang's book at a bookstore in Goyang, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - South Korean author Han Kang poses for the media during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 24, 2016. Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

A book store employee handles books by the South Korean writer Han Kang in London, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. Kang has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

77-year-old South Korean Kim Hyung-duk poses after buying South Korean author Han Kang's books at a bookstore in Goyang, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

South Korean Kim Hyung-duk, 77-year-old, holds books by the South Korean writer Han Kang after buying them at a bookstore in Goyang, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A TV screen shows an image of the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean writer Han Kang, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen shows an image of the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean writer Han Kang, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A TV screen shows an image of the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean writer Han Kang, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's defense minister issued stinging rebukes of what she said were “vile” and “misogynistic” online remarks by “armchair admirals” about the woman captain of a navy ship that ran aground, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa.

“Seriously, it’s 2024,” Judith Collins told reporters Thursday. “What the hell’s going on here?”

After days of comments on social media directed at the gender of Commander Yvonne Gray, Collins urged the public to “be better.” Women members of the military had also faced verbal abuse in the street in New Zealand since the ship — one of nine in the country's navy — was lost on Sunday, Collins said.

All 75 people on board evacuated to safety with only minor injuries after the vessel ran aground on the reef it was surveying about a mile off the coast of Upolu, Samoa's most populous island. The cause of the disaster is not known.

“The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship's captain, a woman with 30 years' naval experience who on the night made the call to get her people to safety,” Collins said.

One of the posters was a truck driver from Melbourne, Australia, she added.

“I think that he should keep his comments to people who drive trucks rather than people who drive ships,” Collins said. “These are the sorts of people I'm calling out and I'm happy to keep calling them out for as long as it takes to stop this behavior.”

About 20% of New Zealand’s uniformed military members are women. Collins is New Zealand's first woman defence minister and said she stood alongside Gray and Maj. Gen. Rose King, the country's first woman army chief, who assumed her role in June.

“We are all appointed on merit, not gender,” said Collins.

The sinking prompted fears of a major fuel spill. On Thursday, officials in Samoa said while the vessel was leaking oil from three places, the amount was reducing each day and was dissipating quickly due to strong winds in the area.

Most of the ship's fuel appeared to have burned out in the fire, according to a statement by the Marine Pollution Advisory Committee. Officials were due to meet with locals Thursday to discuss how to remove the vessel's anchor and three shipping containers from the reef without further damaging the fragile marine ecosystem.

New Zealand’s government has ordered a military court of inquiry into the episode, which will be led by senior military officers. It will assemble for the first time on Friday.

Passengers, including civilian scientists and foreign military personnel, left the vessel on life boats in “challenging conditions” and darkness, New Zealand’s Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told reporters after the sinking.

Those on board have since returned to New Zealand by plane.

The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel had been in service for New Zealand since 2019, but was 20 years old and had previously belonged to Norway. The military said the ship, purchased for $100 million NZ dollars ($61 million), was not covered by replacement insurance.

The state of New Zealand’s aging military hardware has prompted warnings from the defense agency, which in a March report described the navy as “extremely fragile,” with ships idle due to problems retaining the staff needed to service and maintain them. Of the navy’s eight remaining ships, five are currently operational.

Golding said the HMNZS Manawanui underwent a maintenance period before the deployment.

In this photo provided by New Zealand Defence Force, New Zealand's Defense Minister Judith Collins speaks at Auckland's Whenuapai Air Force Base, on Sept. 10, 2024. (LAC Jalesa Noman/New Zealand Defence Force via AP)

In this undated photo provided by New Zealand's Defence Public Affairs, hydrographers onboard HMNZS Manawanui prep REMUS ready for surveying in Tonga during Op Calypso. (Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn/Defence Public Affairs via AP)

In this undated photo provided by New Zealand's Defence Public Affairs, a hydrographer surveys uncharted positions during the transit to Vanuatu on Op Calypso onboard HMNZS Manawanui. (Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn/Defence Public Affairs via AP)

In this undated photo provided by the New Zealand Defence Force, Lieutenant Commander Tala Mafile'o of the Royal Tongan Navy presents Commander Yvonne Gray, left, with a carved wooden bowl as a memento of the RNZN's participation in the 50th Anniversary Fleet Review. (New Zealand Defence Force via AP)

In this photo provided by New Zealand Defence Force, New Zealand's Defense Minister Judith Collins speaks at Auckland's Whenuapai Air Force Base, Sept. 10, 2024. (LAC Jalesa Noman/New Zealand Defence Force via AP)

FILE- Leader of the New Zealand opposition National Party, Judith Collins, speaks prior to entering a salmon factory in Christchurch, N.Z., July 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)