Jung Ha-yeon, the celebrated Korean writer known as a master of the historical drama, has died at the age of 82, Yonhap News reported on November 1.
According to Yonhap, the Korean Writers Association and Jung’s bereaved family said she died on the afternoon of November 1. No cause of death was disclosed in the report.
Born in 1944 in Hwanghae Province, Jung entered the literary world through theatre. A member of Yonsei University’s Yeonhui theatre research group, she debuted in 1968 when her one-act play “Sanullim” won a new writers’ contest.
In the 1970s, Jung moved into film, writing numerous screenplays, including works starring and directed by Shin Seong-il, such as “Eoneu Sarang-ui Iyagi” and “Yeonae Gyosil” in 1971, “Geugeon Neo” in 1974, and “Yeonggwang-ui 9-hoemal” in 1977.
Her reputation as a master of sageuk, the Korean historical drama, was built from the mid-1990s onward. Beginning with “Jang Nok-su” in 1995 and “Jo Gwang-jo” in 1996, she went on to write a run of large-scale historical series: “Wang-gwa Bi” (“The King and the Queen”) from 1998 to 2000, “Myeongseong Hwanghu” (“Empress Myeongseong”) from 2001 to 2002, “Shin Don” from 2005 to 2006, and “Insu Daebi” from 2011 to 2012.
Those dramas, centred on royal courts, political power, and the women who shaped Joseon-era history, became defining works of the genre. “The King and the Queen” and “Empress Myeongseong” in particular remain reference points for Korean historical television.
Beyond historical epics, Jung also wrote popular contemporary dramas about human desire and ruin, including “Morae Wi-ui Yokmang” in 1992 and “Yokmang-ui Bulkkot” in 2010, as well as the intimate emotional drama “Anae” in 2003. Her honours included a special prize at the Dong-A Theatre Awards and a playwright prize at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 1979, and the writer prize at the 1999 KBS Drama Awards for “The King and the Queen.” Her final work as a writer was the 2018 MBC drama “Son Kkok Japgo, Jineun Seogyang-eul Baraboja.”
According to Yonhap, a funeral hall will open at 9 a.m. on November 2 in Room 5 of the funeral hall at Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Seoul, with the funeral procession scheduled for November 4. No official statement beyond the announcement from the association and her family was available at the time of reporting.
