(Updated) Kim Young-ha (김영하) leaves the Internet?

UPDATE AT BOTTOM

Kim Young-ha 김영하

Kim Young-ha (김영하)

Following twitters from Nanoomi.net this morning (retweeting from the Korean twittersphere) I find the strange news that 김영하/Kim Young-ha has apparently withdrawn from the internet. The Seoul  Newspaper (online)  has an article which says in part:

소설가 김영하가 14일 오후 자신의 블로그에 “오래 못 올지도 몰라요. 다들 잘 지내세요.”라면서 트위터와 블로그 활동 잠정 중단을 선언했다.

which my clumsy translation figures out as (anyone with better version can feel free to send it to me)..

On the afternoon of the 14th, Novelist Kim Young-ha on his blog.  (saying)“How long I don’t know. Everyone live well.” He declared the discontinuance of twitter and his blog.

The article, which I am slowly plugging my way through, makes reference to abusive language, uncertanties about truth and ‘noise’ on the internet.   Anyone with better skills than me should feel free to translate that better. ^^

A quick trip online reveals that he is off twitter, his website is down, and for the moment his facebook is still up. I wasn’t aware he had a separate blog – so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what this really means…

In the meantime, The Translator has chipped in with this:

This is due to what he posted on his twitter regarding a young screen writer who recently passed away. The screen writer, a former student of Kim, left behind a note that seemed to bef begging others to drop off any left over rice and kimchi at her door (for her to eat). The news media interpreted that to mean that the screen writer died from starvation. Kim pointed out on his twitter posting the direct cause of death might have been an acute disease she was already suffering. Also, Kim alluded to a possibility that the screen writer had prepared to end her own life.

Or, so was the story I read this morning on an internet newspaper.

At any rate, the public sentiment which has already made something of a martyrdom out of the death in criticizing unethical business practices of the movie making industry of Korea is not very kind to Kim’s posting.

So, in other words.. it’s tin-pot netizens going after one of the few really solid international Korean figures.

Siiiiiiiiigh…..