By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Novelist and former lawmaker Kim Hong-shin has released an epic history novel series titled ``Great Balhae.''
He returns to his readers three years after his defeat to a political rival. Kim, former member of the Uri Party, was defeated by Park Jin, lawmaker of the Grand National Party, by a narrow margin in the 2004 general election.
In the novel, the 60-year-old author articulates the history and culture of the Balhae Kingdom (698-926) which occupied the northern part of today's Korean Peninsula and the northeastern region of China.
Kim said that he explored the historical sites of the kingdom and researched hundreds of books and documents to write the story.
The book consists of ten volumes. The first four volumes will be released to the public next week and the remaining six volumes will be published the following week.
Kim said that he was motivated to write the series because he was angry over China's latest attempt to distort history through ``the northeast project,'' a state-supported history research project in Manchuria, northeastern China. The project is believed to aim to usurp the ancient history of Korea.
He said that his book series is in response to Chinese historians' claims in recent publications that such Korean ancient kingdoms as Gojoseon, Goguryeo and Balhae were provincial regimes of then-existing Chinese dynasties.
``I believe that if we revisit the past we have not given due care, and reexamine the past through the present, our history and people will get stronger in the future,'' he said in his book.
Kim earned his reputation with the best-seller "Human Market" in the 1980s.