Anchor: South Korean author Han Kang has received the Nobel Prize in Literature at an awards ceremony in Sweden, becoming the first South Korean and the first Asian woman to win the honor. Han received a diploma and a Nobel medal from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf on Tuesday afternoon during a ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm.
Kim Bum-soo has more.
 
Report:
 
[Sound bite: 2024 Nobel Prize awards ceremony]
“Dear Han Kang, on behalf of the Swedish Academy, it is my privilege to convey to you our warmest congratulations on the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 …” 

Standing on the blue carpet in a black dress, South Korean author Han Kang accepted the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Asian woman to attain the honor.

[Sound bite: Swedish writer Ellen Mattson - Nobel Committee for Literature 2024(as translated by an on-site translator)]
“Two colors meet in Han Kang’s writing: white and red.”

At the awards ceremony in Stockholm on Tuesday, Swedish novelist Ellen Mattson paid tribute to Han for creating a world that is full of pain yet attests to a stubborn resistance. 
 
[Sound bite: Swedish writer Ellen Mattson - Nobel Committee for Literature 2024 (as provided by on-site translator)]
“The white is the snow that falls in so many of her books, drawing a protective curtain between the narrator and the world, but white is also the color of sorrow, and of death. Red stands for life, but also for pain, blood, the deep cuts of a knife.” 

In her acceptance speech at the Nobel Banquet, Han said the work of reading and writing literature stands in opposition to all acts that destroy life.

[Sound bite: Nobel laureate Han Kang]
“Literature that deals in this language inevitably holds a kind of body heat. Just as inevitably, the work of reading and writing literature stands in opposition to all acts that destroy life. I would like to share the meaning of this award, which is for literature, with you — standing here together.”

Han, whose works include “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts,” won the prize for what the Swedish Academy characterized as intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.