About Cho Ki-chon
Cho Ki-chon (Korean: 조기천; 6 November 1913 – 31 July 1951) was a Soviet-born North Korean poet. He is regarded as a national poet and "founding father of North Korean poetry" whose distinct Soviet-influenced style of lyrical epic poetry in the socialist realist genre became an important feature of North Korean literature. He was nicknamed "Korea's Mayakovsky" after the writer whose works had had an influence on him and which implied his breaking from the literature of the old society and his commitment to communist values. Since a remark made by Kim Jong Il on his 2001 visit to Russia, North Korean media has referred to Cho as the "Pushkin of Korea". Cho was dispatched by the Soviet authorities to liberated Korea when the Red Army entered in 1945. By that time, he had substantial experience with Soviet literature and literature administration. The Soviets hoped that Cho would shape the cultural institutions of the new state based on the Soviet model. For the Soviets, the move was successful, and Cho did not only that but also significantly developed socialist realism as it would become the driving force of North Korean literature and arts. Cho offered some of the earliest contributions to Kim Il Sung's cult of personality. His most famous work is Mt. Paektu (1947), a lyrical epic praising Kim Il Sung's guerrilla activities and promoting him as a suitable leader for the new North Korean state. Other notable works by Cho include Whistle, a seemingly non-political love poem which was later adapted as a popular song that is known in both North and South Korea. During the Korean War, Cho wrote wartime propaganda poems. He died during the war in an American bombing raid. He and his works are still renowned in North Korean society. He published his first poem the age of 17 in a Korean newspaper, Sŏnbong, in Russia.
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