Yi Kŭmch'ŏl

Yi Kŭmch'ŏl is a North Korean writer known for writing spy fiction, science fiction, and technothriller novels. A prominent figure in Korean science fiction, Yi is one of the most prolific science fiction writers in North Korea. By the 2010s, he had written about 20 science fiction stories, accounting for about one-fifth of all North Korean science fiction literature. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Yi's "distinctive fusion of Cold War technothriller, espionage narrative, and futuristic spectacle has defined the genre's contemporary form" in North Korea.

Writing style Yi is credited with introducing innovative tropes and plot elements into North Korean science fiction. He has been noted for his use of eroticism, suspense, and mysterious conspiracies in his stories. Prior to his works, these tropes were unused in North Korean literature. ), which takes place on a Pacific island, the protagonists engage in romance without regard for political or ideological considerations. Yi makes use of ideas and vocabulary borrowed from foreign fiction. For example, much of the vocabulary in Red Flash originates in Japanese detective stories, and he uses the English loanword "romance" in the story to emphasize the unusual nature of the relationship between the protagonists to North Korean readers. ), a futuristic anti-gravity ray serves as a deus ex machina to save the protagonists from an American terrorist attack.