Poet Ko Eun, Involved in Sexual Harassment Controversy, Resumes Publishing Activities After 5 Years Without Apology

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo Mideum] Poet Ko Un, who had suspended public activities amid allegations of sexual harassment, has published a new poetry collection. This comes five years after the Me Too controversy in 2018.

Last month, Ko published two books through Silcheon Munhaksa. One is the poetry collection Song of Nothingness, commemorating the 65th anniversary of his literary debut, and the other is a dialogue book Conversations with Ko Un, featuring discussions with Canadian poet Ramin Jahanbegloo.

In the poetry collection, Ko wrote, "Silcheon Munhaksa, which was born with great difficulty in the late 1970s, has become solid thanks to the dedication of writer Yoon Han-ryong, and this poetry collection has come out from there. The gratitude is deep." The commentary for the collection was written by Kim Woo-chang, Professor Emeritus at Korea University.

Although Ko refrained from public activities, he did not give up writing. Through the author's notes in both books, he revealed, "I have lived in the time of poetry almost year-round without a break," and stated, "Ultimately, I want to become poetry without poetry, a poet without poetry, and poetry without a poet. I want to belong to poetry before and after language."

Previously, Ko was accused of sexual harassment through the revelations of poet Choi Young-mi. In the winter issue of the literary magazine Hwanghae Munhwa in 2017, Choi referred to Ko as ‘En’ and wrote, "He touches whenever he sees a young woman," "The silk suit jacket borrowed from my younger sibling was wrinkled," and "After raising a monster, how should we catch the monster?" which sparked the Me Too controversy in the Korean literary world.

Subsequently, Ko filed a lawsuit for damages against Choi but lost in the appellate court and reportedly gave up on appealing further. Ko has not issued any explanation or apology to Korean readers or the Korean literary community. Through an English statement titled ‘Ko Un’s statement’ sent to the British newspaper The Guardian, he expressed regret that his name was mentioned in recent allegations but firmly denied the accusations of habitual misconduct raised by some.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.