When culture loses to real estate: What closure of Han Kang's bookstore says about Korea

“Can the Han River ever beat the sea?

Come visit Busan!” The celebratory remark by Busan's Kyungnam High School baseball team after winning a championship charmed many with its youthful wit.

In reality, however, Nobel laureate Han Kang, who shares a name with the wide river running through Seoul, has been defeated by something else: real estate.

Onul Books, the small independent bookstore run by Han in central Seoul's Seochon neighborhood, closed its doors this month after a change in ownership forced all tenants to vacate the building.

It was not a closure the author had wanted.

The bookstore first opened in Seoul's affluent Gangnam District in 2018.

Struggling with mounting costs, it relocated in 2023 to a modest 33-square-meter space in Seochon, but could not survive there either.

Once again, it fell victim to the power of money.

When Han won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2024, the bookstore briefly shut its doors amid the public frenzy surrounding the award.

The lights eventually came back on, that time.

This time, they have gone out for good.

During its final week, devoted p ...