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Nam-oak
Tae-woo was Mi-ran’s father. Originally from South Korea, Tae-woo fought for South Korea in the Korean War and was brought to North Korea as a prisoner of war. The regime refused to release him after the war ended, and Tae-woo lived out his days in North Korea as a miner whose heritage made him a person of beulsun, or tainted blood. Tae-woo’s beulsun came to affect his entire family’s social standing and future prospects in North Korea. Tae-woo passed away in 1997—his final wish was that his family contact his distant relatives in South Korea. Eventually, Mi-ran, her sister So-hee, her brother Sok-ju, and their mother would defect to South Korea with the help of Tae-woo’s long-lost family.
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Tae-woo Character Timeline in Nothing to Envy
The timeline below shows where the character Tae-woo appears in Nothing to Envy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
Mi-ran’s father, Tae-woo, was a miner from South Korea—which was, during his youth, under Japanese control. After World...
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Tae-woo was 18 in 1950 when the Communists from North Korea invaded South Korea. He joined...
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Tae-woo would spend the rest of his life watched carefully by his local inminban, or people’s...
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Chapter 14
...about her job—she had only 15 students as opposed to the standard 50—and her father Tae-woo’s failing health. Just before Tae-woo passed in 1997, he begged his children to inform his...
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Chapter 20
...was born as soon as they could. The municipal office gave them the address of Tae-woo’s younger sisters. Sok-ju wrote a letter to them, informing his aunts of where he and...
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...Sok-ju and his family were who they said they were, having not heard anything from Tae-woo for decades. After a DNA test to confirm their relation, both aunts came to China...
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