The Interview: Life of North Korean Author Paek Namnyong

Immanuel Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University (SUNY). He specializes in North Korean literature, cinema, and culture. He is currently working on his manuscript titled “Love, Writing, and the State in North Korean Fiction.”

Paek Namnyong is the author of the best-selling novel Pŏt (Friend), which was published in 1988 in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the recipient of the Kim Il-Sung Literary Award. He graduated from Kim Il-Sung University and began his writing career in 1979. He was born in 1949 in Hamhǔng, South Hamgyŏng Province, and currently resides in P’yŏngyang.