Farewell to coal, and to a generation

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Farewell to coal, and to a generation

Published: 18 Jun. 2025, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Kim Myung-hwa

The author is a playwright and director.

My life has long been bound to coal. My father once ran a coal briquette factory — a common source of household heating fuel in Korea at the time, and as a child, I was nicknamed “Blackie.” My sisters often said they would have stopped at high school if not for coal. It was that kind of era. Thanks to the business, all six daughters received a university education. Coal helped not only the country, but our family as well.

A scene from Yoon Jo-byeong’s play "Bonfire Morning Dew". [KOREAN STUDIES CENTRAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE]

Now, Korea’s last state-run coal mine, the Dogye Mining Complex, is preparing to shut down. Only one private coal operation, the Sangdong Mine, is expected to remain. With its closure, the age of coal and the fathers who supported their families with it seems to be ending.

Although there are records of coal use during the Joseon Dynasty, industrial mining only began in earnest in the 20th century. The Pyongyang Mining Office opened in 1903. Despite the colonial exploitation that followed, coal remained a central energy source in Korea’s postwar industrial development. It was a time when safety and labor rights were poorly understood. Disasters like tunnel collapses and conflicts such as the Sabuk miners’ uprising were common. Mining towns illuminated Korea’s path to modernity, even as they embodied its darkest extremes.

Korean theater has often reflected on this contrast. Playwrights like Yoon Dae-seong in “The Success Story”(1974) and Lee Kang-baek in “The People of the Jurassic Age” used the setting of the mines to explore themes of injustice and neglect. These dramatists helped define Korea’s modern history on stage while also acknowledging the marginalized labor of miners.

The entrance to the Dogye Mine stands quiet in May 2025, just a month before its closure. The Dogye Mining Complex is the last state-run coal mine operated by the Korea Coal Corporation. [KIM HONG-JUN]

Yoon Jo-byeong, in particular, immersed himself in the mining towns. In the early 1980s, during Korea’s military dictatorship, he visited coal-producing regions like Jeongseon, where he worked for over 20 days as a coal sorter and hauler before writing his mining town trilogy: "Bonfire Morning Dew," "The Sound of the Organ" and "From Crescent to New Moon." In an era when speaking of justice could be dangerous, his effort to dramatize the lives of miners was an act of quiet defiance.

Today, I find myself unexpectedly missing my late father, a strict patriarch against whom I often rebelled. I also miss those elder generations, now sometimes dismissed as outdated. To coal — now condemned as a pollutant — I say, thank you. You carried us far.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.