Choe Ryon, PhD, associate professor and lecturer at the Faculty of Korean Linguistics of Kim Il Sung University, was awarded the WIPO National Award for Creativity in 2025 for her full-length novel “Make Your Youth Stay Young”.

Readers' curiosity about the author

As soon as it was published in 2023, the full-length novel was read widely, evoking an enthusiastic response from many readers at home, and was appreciated as one of the best sellers of the year.

Those who read the novel at that time said in admiration and out of curiosity: “It is a work free from outdated patterns of the past”, “The author might be a scientist or the wife of a scientist”, “How could she describe so exquisitely and profoundly the mental agony the scientists suffer during their research, details of their life and the inner worlds of the characters?”, “What kind of novels did she write before?” etc.

Choe Ryon, who was born and grew up in Phohang District of Chongjin City, North Hamgyong Province, was very fond of reading and composition and dreamed of becoming a novelist in her childhood.

Her designer father and math teacher mother would bless the future of their third daughter who pursued literature unlike her two elder sisters who favoured natural science.

Later, she enrolled at the Faculty of Korean Linguistics of Kim Il Sung University as she wished and cultivated her talents to her heart’s content. She was engrossed in composing poems during her university days and writing novels during her postgraduate days.

She has never spent a day without doing creative work even after becoming a lecturer and getting married.

She has so far created more than 60 works. Her typical works are short stories "The Pleasant Dream" and "Make the Sea Blue" and epic "Dream of Korea" as well as full-length novel “Make Your Youth Stay Young”.

In particular, her short stories about strong-willed women scientists give a true-to-life portrayal of them to clearly explain that the true value of the life of women and their genuine wealth lie in their patriotic deeds for the country, instead of the happiness of their families, thus leaving the readers with a strong impression.

Dream comes true

“The book was unputdownable, so I read it even by ‘neglecting’ my work. In a nutshell, this novel is an excellent work which tells our young scientists in the context of actual life what kind of dream, ambition and attitude they should have in conducting scientific research.”

“Her work teaches not only young scientists but also the older generation and middle-aged scientists how to lead their juniors.”

Since the publication of the full-length novel, Choe Ryon has received from its readers a lot of e-mails, messages and phone calls telling about their impressions.

It is because, through the portrayal of characters including the heroine Ri Ji Un, a girl researcher, the work raises the question of what is the meaning of success in scientific research career and what is genuine youth, and offers the clear answer that the genuine way to success and the true worth of youth lie in devoting one’s all to bringing glory to the country by challenging the world, without seeking one’s own fame, wealth or personal pleasure.

A young scientist at the Bioengineering Branch of the State Academy of Sciences said that the novel instilled great strength and courage into him who had been wavering in the face of difficulties of his scientific work, adding that he would glorify his youth with an innovative research orientation and way of thinking and an ambitious goal of life.

Choe Ryon had hoped that her full-length novel would become a work which is loved by everyone and which, on the strength of literature, would remind the people once again of the true meaning of genuine patriotism, the real worth and value of life and happy life. Her dream came true.

Still a large number of readers express their respect for her depictive ability and literary talent, as she portrayed the characters so vividly and truthfully, described the process of research into graphene, a cutting-edge material, in plain language to be easily understood by the readers with profound knowledge of the scientific research field and created famous speeches and sentences full of meaning.

Choe is still working to create literary works in order to encourage people to work hard for the prosperity of the country by means of the strong appeal of literature.