Jo Ryong Chul (November 10, 1913-May 8, 1993), winner of Kim Il Sung Prize, was a distinguished poet and writer in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Born into an ill-fated intellectual’s family in the days of the Japanese colonial rule, Jo wrote a lot of lyrics and poems from his school days. The works created by him in this period were run through with the sorrow and anger as a member of a ruined nation and love for his native village.

His creative talent was brought into fuller bloom in the genuine people’s country which was built after Korea was liberated from the Japanese military occupation on August 15, 1945. He engaged in a wide scope of creative activities such as the creation of poems, dramas and librettos and the adaptation and embellishment of national classic works.

Before the liberation he used to create sad lyrics such as Falling Blossoms and Flowing Streams and A Homeless Angel showing the sorrow and resentment as a member of a ruined nation and love for native land. But surprisingly enough, he created the lyrics of Song of National Defence in 1950.

As is well known, the song made a big contribution to rousing the Korean people to the struggle to win victory in the Korean war started by the US imperialists on June 25, 1950.

In every period of the developing revolution he wrote numerous lyrics and poems with a burning passion towards the relevant time. His works are all true-to-life, emotional and evoking.

The lyrics such as The 2 000-ri Amnok River (1952), Off We Go, Brindled Ox, Song of Mangyongdae (1962), Flow, Taedong River and If Our Mother Party Wishes (1992) are still widely sung among the Korean people.

He also wrote scripts of many dramas and operas like Admiral Ri Sun Sin, The Flowered Shoes and Eight Fairies of Mt Kumgang.

In the 1960s the country adapted into an opera Chinese classic novel Dream at the Red Mansion and put it on the stage. The work made an amazing sensation among the Korean and Chinese audiences. All the words in dialogues were impeccably refined, emotional and metaphorically truthful. It was the public assessment that his lyrics were worthy of their names and rich in literary taste.

On March 21, 2009 Chairman Kim Jong Il saw the adapted version of Chinese opera and said that Jo was surely a literary giant and that he had adapted the famous work well.

He produced good results in the creation of dramatic literature in the 1970s when a great heyday of the Juche-oriented art was being ushered in in the country.

He took an active part in the creation of operas Song of Mt Kumgang, Lake Yonphung, Under the Bright Sun, Tell O Forest, music and dance drama A Summer on the Banks of the Tuman River and in the adaptation of the immortal classic The Fate of a Self-defence Corps Man into a revolutionary opera.

Besides, he did his part in writing lyrics of new folk songs, modifying old ones to suit modern aesthetic taste and embellishing Tale of Ondal and other national classics.

While working for long at a responsible position in the field of the country’s art and literature, he made tangible contributions to developing them.

His works are included in Jo Ryong Chul’s Selected Poems and The Collection of Jo Ryong Chul’s Plays and others.

Yang Ryon Hui