koreanlit1-8, Exercise 1: Kim Chi-ha

Model answer:

Born Kim Yeongil (1941 to 2022), poet and playwright, a dissident under Park Chung Hee, who took power in a 1961 coup. Pen name Jiha, which the article says is the Korean word for "underground".

His 1970 poem Five Bandits led to his arrest under the Anti-Communist Law. The article notes the poem "says nothing about either communism or North Korea"; it is read as a satire of Park, and the magazine that printed it was pulled from circulation. Groundless Rumors, a ballad, uses pansori rhythm, as Five Bandits does, to satirise corruption among those in power.

1974: he was tried and sentenced to death (the article says 1974). After a public outcry the sentence was commuted to life and he was later released; he was jailed again after accusing the government of torture in the People's Revolutionary Party case.

The article does not mention an international campaign or later controversy.

Source: Wikipedia, Kim Chi-ha.