Renowned South Korean poet Ko Un has been chosen to receive an Italian award for literature, a local publisher affiliated with the poet said Wednesday.

Ko will receive the literature award from the 2014 NordSud International Prize for Literature and Science at an Italian university Friday, according to Changbi Publishers that printed many of his poems.

“The decision was made with unilateral consent from all jury members,” a Changbi official said. “We heard renowned Italian poet Elio Pecora emphasized Ko’s global significance.”

The prize was established in 2009 by Italy’s Pescara Bruzzo Foundation to encourage dialogue between the cultures and economies of the global north and the global south.

Former winners of the literature award include novelists Peter Handke of Austria, Luis Sepulveda of Chile and Aleksandar Hemon of Yugoslavia.

Ko will leave for Italy on Wednesday to attend the awards ceremony, the publisher said.

Born in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, in 1933, Ko is regarded as one of the most prolific living Korean writers. He has published well over a hundred volumes of poetry, fiction, essays, translations and dramas. (Yonhap)

He is best known for “Maninbo” (Ten Thousand Lives), a 30-volume epic poetry series that he began during his imprisonment during a military regime in the 1970s and completed in 2010.

Some 10 anthologies of Ko’s poems, including “Maninbo” and “Songs for Tomorrow,” have been translated into English and published in the U.S. (Yonhap)