Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to South Korean author Han Kang

FOR HER 'INTENSE POETIC PROSE'

STOCKHOLM: South Korean author Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for what the Nobel committee called "her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."

Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson praised Han's "physical empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives" of her characters.

"She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style, has become an innovator in contemporary prose," Olsson said.

Nobel Literature Committee member Anna-Karin Palm said Han writes "intense lyrical prose that is both tender and brutal, and sometimes slightly surrealistic as well."

Han becomes the first Asian woman and the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel Literature Prize.