First of all, congratulations, to Han Kang and Korea as well. The prize goes to an individual, but the nation shares in the recognition. This is the second Nobel Prize for Korea. The first was the peace prize awarded to Kim Dae-jung for his efforts to attain peace with North Korea. My question is, where are the other Nobel Prizes?

It may be a bit of a downer to ask where the other prizes are. And perhaps I shouldn't ask that question — but at least I started this article with words of congratulations to author Han. And certainly, that is in order. Author Han has received many other awards for her work and certainly, it deserves the recognition that it — the work — and she, has received.

In no way do I want to lessen the magnificence of Korea receiving a Nobel Prize for literature. I say Korea, because the award recognizes Korea as well as the author. This is particularly true for the literature prize because the literature is a representation of the people in a way that the other prizes are not. The peace prize, too, recognizes the culture and nationality of the recipient — the efforts for peace are for far more than the individual recipient. But the literature prize addresses the deeper, long-held values of the people represented in the winning work of literature.

There was an incident some years ago that has been burned into my memory concerning the Nobel Prizes. I was leading a group of American textbook writers and editors in a seminar and fact-finding tour of Korea when I commented on the Nobel Peace Prize that had recently, at that point, been awarded to Kim Dae-jung. And I told the group about the displays of Nobel Prize winners in a gallery of framed sketches of winners over the years that was on display at the entrance to a Kyobo bookstore. I told the group that there was one framed picture of a large question mark — and the caption, rather than telling the story of the person who had been awarded the prize, like the other frames, this one said, "And this could be you? Will you be a winner of a Nobel Prize?"

At the entrance to the bookstore, the message was clear — "Young man!, young woman! Study hard and you can be rewarded with a Nobel Prize."

As I told this group about the bookstore's display and Korea's burning desire to attain this kind of international recognition, I said, in light of the Nobel Prize for peace that Korea had already attained, I supposed that Korea would trade in its peace prize for a literature prize. As I said this, my co-host for the program, a Korean American woman, uttered a very audible, "YES!" that emphatically underscored the opinion that I had just expressed.

The underlying issue there, frankly, however, was political. There were some, I knew, who didn't think highly of the peace prize for political reasons — they were not in Kim Dae-jung's party. But still, it was an interesting idea, that the literature prize would be more coveted.

One cannot look at the Nobel Prizes, certainly, this is the case in Korea, without looking at the international situation, and for Korea, this means looking at the unstated competition with Japan. One of the reasons the literature prize was so coveted was that Japan had received a prize for literature.

So, Korea finally has its literature recognition. It has had several nominees in the past. Some curmudgeons in Korea are criticizing the award, saying that other authors were better qualified, but that is akin to the critics of Kim Dae-jung's, those of another political faction. Members of other literary factions have grumbled about this award. But what's done is done and unmitigatedly, it should be celebrated.

But this curmudgeon has another question — where are the other Nobel Prizes for Korea — in physics, medicine or economics? That question opens a whole "nuther" can of worms. It raises questions about Korea's educational system, which is still, after the centuries, focused on memorization rather than creativity. This topic deserves another article — next time I'll write about my opinion of how the Korean educational system does not prepare students for Nobel Prizes, despite the aspirational motivation at the entrance to the Kyobo Book store.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is a professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.