Shin Kyoung-sook Donates Prize Money to Charity (and wins another award)

KTLIT Logo1) First the news that she won.

Shin Kyung-sook, author of the international bestseller Please Look After Mom, has been awarded the Royal Salute “Mark of Respect” award.  The award was one I didn’t even know existed (and I found the following information on the excellent Subject, Object, Verb):

“Every year, Pernod Ricard Korea selects someone who has made a great achievement in the field of arts and culture and awards them the “Mark of Respect.” Shin is pictured above with Peter Prentice (VP of Chivas Bros Asia-Pacific) and Jean-Manuel Spriet (CEO of Pernod Ricard Korea). Shin plans to donate the 50,000,000 (5천만원) KRW award to UNICEF and the Purme Foundation.”

2) Second the news she donated half of her winnings. Lovely that she won, lovely that she donated, and lovely that she made a shout-out to Park Wan-suh.

Novelist Shin Kyung-sook has donated half of the W50 million prize money she received from Pernod Ricard Korea to a charity foundation (US$1=W1,130). Shin picked up the “Mark of Respect” award, which the spirits producer has since 2005 handed out to eminent figures in the fields of culture and the arts each year.

In keeping with tradition, where the winners donate part of their prize money to charities of their choice, Shin pledged W25 million to the Purme Foundation, which is dedicated to building rehabilitation hospitals for patients with disabilities.

“I decided to make a donation to the Purme Foundation, which has close ties with late novelist Park Wan-seo, whom I deeply respect,” she said, adding that the money will be used to construct a hospital for children in Seoul.