koreanlit1-8, Exercise 3: Park Wan-suh, Hwang Sok-yong and Gwangju

Model answer:

Park Wan-suh: 20 October 1931 to 22 January 2011. The Korean War separated her from her mother and elder brother and ended her studies early; her early fiction is grouped under "the tragic events of Korean War and its aftermath". Work: "The Naked Tree" (1970); Who Ate Up All the Shinga? sold about 1.5 million copies in Korean.
Hwang Sok-yong: born 4 January 1943. Served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969, which inspired "The Pagoda" (1970) and The Shadow of Arms (1985). Also The Guest (2002), about a massacre in North Korea.

Gwangju death figures (18 to 27 May 1980): government, 144 civilians, 22 soldiers and 4 police (165 in total); May 18 Family Association, at least 165 plus 76 missing and presumed dead; scholarly estimates 600 to 2,300 (lead) and "anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000" elsewhere in the article.
Why no single figure: the article says there is "no universally accepted death toll"; the sources use different counts, and disputing the official figures could once lead to arrest for "spreading false rumors".

Sources: Wikipedia, Park Wan-suh; Hwang Sok-yong; Gwangju Uprising.