Kim Sun-hyang, Chairperson of the University of North Korean Studies, who was a scholar of English literature at Kyung Hee University and KU, has published Journal of Poems 1998~2012, a collection of poetry consisting of 100 diaries spanning over 14 years. Her special affection for her late mother as well as her extraordinary affection for her beloved husband, children and grandchildren appears throughout the poems. In addition, the schedules in Pyongyang and other countries around the world are vividly depicted. In particular, the scenes at the awards ceremony, where her husband Park Jae Kyu, President of KU and a former South Korean minister of unification was awarded the first Special Jury Prize for Conflict Prevention from the Foundation Chirac in 2009, are vividly depicted through a poem.
According to Choi Dong-ho, a professor at Korea University and poet, the individual poems in Journal of Poems are read as a straightforward and personal record of life and a huge epic record of turbulent times. And Jeong Il-geun, a professor at KU and poet, said that this poetry journal is an honest record and he felt as if he had seen a living documentary called ’life.'
The recitation video of At the First Awards of Prize for Conflict Prevention is available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioorPlulWzk&feature=youtu.be).
