International authors will discuss setting up a group for North Korean writers in exile at a meeting in Gyeongju this year.

Vice president of the Czech PEN Club Marketa Hejkalova said that issues of human rights and freedom of expression in North Korea would be discussed at the PEN International world congress this September.

The acclaimed novelist came to Korea as part of a delegation of writers in preparation for the congress of some 300 authors from 114 countries, including Nobel literary prize winners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

“The main purpose of PEN International is to promote literature and to promote freedom of expression and the conference in Gyeongju in September is based around literature, media and human rights,” said Hejkalova at an event at the Czech Info Center in Seoul. 

“Above all, we will be discussing the situation in North Korea. As having a PEN group in North Korea is impossible for them, we want to consider if there should be established the PEN group for North Korean writers in exile.”

She explained how writers-in-exile groups were set up by the international writers’ association to support countries where PEN could not be active because of totalitarian regimes.

The publisher and translator of Finnish literature also spoke about her own work and about 21st century Czech literature ahead of her trip to North Gyeongsang Province to prepare for the 78th International PEN Congress.

The congress of networking and literary events has been held in Korea twice before, in 1970 and 1988, hosting forums, lectures and poetry recitals. Other notable guests at the event to run from Sept. 9-15 will include professor David R McCann of Harvard University, author Yi Mun-yol, and Korean-Japanese writer Yu Miri.

Although Czech ambassador Jaroslav Olsa Jr. was unable to attend the event at Castle Praha, Seoul, due to illness, a message from him was read to the audience.

“PEN was actively involved in supporting those writers who were not able to publish under the police surveillance or even in jail during the communist regime in my country,” said Olsa, of the writers’ organization once headed by former Czech president and democracy champion Vaclav Havel.

“For me as ambassador, literature is of utmost importance. It is a real influential tool which brings people and cultures together and indeed on of the best vehicles to promote my own country.”

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)