Korean Short Stories: A Collection from North Korea

This anthology gathers six short stories by North Korean authors, originally published in Pyongyang in 1986. The stories span roughly two decades of writing, from 1960 to the early 1980s, and carry titles such as History of Iron, Happiness, Ogi, Fellow Travellers, Everyone in Position, and Unfinished Sculpture. Each is credited to a different writer, among them Pyon Hui Gun, Sok Yun Gi, Chon Se Bong, Kim Byong Hun, Om Dan Ung, and Ko Byong Sam.

Collections of North Korean fiction in English translation are uncommon, and this volume offers a window into themes and storytelling conventions that developed under the country's particular literary and political conditions during the 1960s and 1970s. The titles suggest subjects ranging from industrial labor and collective effort to personal fulfillment and artistic creation, concerns that often appear in literature shaped by state publishing frameworks.

The stories were written across a period that included rapid industrialization and social reorganization in North Korea. As primary texts from that era, they reflect the priorities and narrative styles that state-supported authors worked within, making the collection a useful point of reference for readers interested in Korean literary history beyond the more widely available South Korean canon.