Former President Moon Jae-in stands in his study at his retirement home in Pyeongsan, a village in southeastern Korea. (courtesy of Hangilsa)
Kim Eon-ho, the CEO of publisher Hangilsa, has stayed true to his vocation of publishing over the past 47 years. At the end of last year, Kim stopped by Pyeongsan Village to meet with former South Korean President Moon Jae-in. What follows is a condensed, edited, and translated version of their three-hour interview, which focused solely on the topic of books.
Kim Eon-ho
Kim Eon-ho, CEO of HangilsaAfter completing his five-year term as president on May 10, 2022, Moon Jae-in returned home to Pyeongsan, a village in South Gyeongsang Province. The former president is a voracious reader, so I wanted to give him some of the books we’ve published. I also wanted to take a look at his study and hear about his reading habits.I visited Pyeongsan on a winter afternoon last year, when the countryside glowed with a ruddy light. Pyeongsan is a cozy hamlet of some 50 families on the slopes of Mt. Yeongchuk, where Tongdo Temple was established 1,400 years ago. Moon is one of a hundred or so people living there.Moon is well-known for sharing his thoughts about several books that he read during his time in office. He has continued to recommend books even after his term ended.One of his recommendations was “A Citizen’s History of Korea,” which was written over the course of a decade in a collaboration between more than 70 members of the Korean History Society. Moon described it as a “history book for citizens, which narrates our history objectively and excludes the statist interpretation following reflection over the debate over state-composed history textbooks.”
