Park Nohae

Park Nohae (Korean: 박노해; born 1957) is a South Korean poet, photographer and activist. At the age of twenty-seven, Park published his first collection of poems, titled Dawn of Labor, in 1984. Despite official bans, this collection sold nearly a million copies, and he became an intensely symbolic figure of resistance, often called the "Faceless Poet." In 1991 the scene of him smiling brightly while facing the death sentence still evokes a strong memory. After seven and a half years in prison, he was pardoned in 1998. Thereafter, he was reinstated as a contributor to the democratization movement, but he refused any state compensation, saying "I will not live today by selling the past." In 2003, right after the United States' invasion of Iraq, he flew to the field of war. Since then, he often visits countries that are suffering from war and poverty in order to raise awareness about the situation through his photos and writings. In 2006, he established 〈Zaituna(Olive) Nanum Munhwa School〉in Ain Al-Hilweh, the world's largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and he has been supporting the school for 18 years. In 2024, his first collection of poems, Dawn of labor published in United States.