Renowned Korean Female Writer Dies

Park Kyung-ni, a renowned South Korean female novelist, died Monday at the age of 82 after suffering a stroke and slipping into a coma, her close acquaintances said.

Park, one of Korea's greatest contemporary writers, was unconscious since April 4 following a stroke, and surviving on a life-support system, they said.

She was diagnosed as having lung cancer last July but refused hospital treatment. Instead, she moved to a rural area near the city of Wonju, Gangwon Province, believing she could heal herself by being close to nature.

Her epic novel "The Land," regarded by her compatriots as a masterpiece of contemporary Korean literature, has been included in the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Set in the southeastern countryside, it depicts the turbulent time around the turn of the 20th century when Koreans were struggling against

threats from the Japanese imperialism.