Kim Jin-myung is a South Korean novelist born in 1958 in Busan. He rose to fame with his first novel, Mugunghwakkochi pieotseumnida (무궁화꽃이 피었습니다 The Rose of Sharon Blooms Again), an instant classic. On the strength of the novel's popularity, Kim went on to run for the National Assembly and became the face of a television campaign for beer. Concerned with issues of national security and the denuclearization of a divided Korea, Mugunghwakkochi pieotseumnida sold over six million copies. The novel is a work of speculative fiction imagining that the historical figure of Dr. Benjamin Whisoh Lee, a South Korean physicist who worked in the US, was secretly involved in developing nuclear weapons during the last days of the Park Chung-hee administration. At the time of the book's publication, Dr. Lee's family objected to Kim's depiction of the scientist and brought a defamation suit against him.
1. Life
Enjoying popularity across all demographics in the 1990s, Kim is also credited with drawing in male readers in their 30s to 40s. Kim's fascination with history and narratives that emphasize nationalist pride consistently applies to all of his works, starting with Mugunghwakkochi pieotseumnida. He is also sometimes considered an anti-US and anti-Japan author as the two countries are often cast as the enemy in his works. Kim's oeuvre is characterized by a preoccupation with historical events mired in controversy. Since his debut, Kim has published Cheonnyeonui geumseo (천년 의 금서 The Book Forbidden for a Thousand Years), a mystery thriller on nuclear secrets; Mongyudowon (몽유도원 Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land), which takes on Japan's invasion of Korea; and Hwangtaejabi napchisageon (황태자비 납치사건 Kidnapping the Empress), regarding the assassination of Empress Myeongseong.
As a country strongly influenced by the US, Japan, and China, Kim states that it is inevitable that Korea should take an interest in its relationships with other nations and seek for ways to survive. He has made it clear that for him the novel is about taking full advantage of the author's artistic license to reconstruct reality rather than to write about the thoughts or inner world of the individual. Kim's modus operandi is narratives that appeal to Korean patriotism through the author's interpretation of macro-historical events. His latest work published in 2023, inspired by the war in Ukraine, is entitled Putineul jugineun wanbyeokan bangbeop (푸틴을 죽이는 완벽한 방법 How to Kill Putin for Good).
LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
