Park Young-geun  Park Young-geun (1958~2006) was a South Korean poet. He was in the front lines of many labor and democratization movements, and he portrays the lives and emotions of these protestors using vivid language in his writing. Park is well-known as the original author of the widely popular protest song from the 1990s, "Pine Tree, Green Pine Tree" (솔아 푸르른 솔아). Park was born in 1958, in Buan County, North Jeolla Province. Because of his parent’s enthusiasm for education, Park spent years away from his hometown, graduating from Iksan Middle School and Jeonju Highschool. As a high school student, he was an avid reader of "Changbi" Magazine, "Sasanggye" Magazine, and explored the works of Go Un, Hwang Seok-young, Kim Ji Ha and many others. His statements at school on the October Restoration and the made him a person put under surveillance by his school. Deciding that the repressive school life would no longer be necessary, Park eventually withdrew himself from high school. The next year, he joined the high school literary circle and published a passionate poem in the style of Soviet Revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. He subsequently faced hardships as he had his home searched and was taken into custody at the police station for 20 days. After this, he went to Seoul to participate in the labor movements and Christian Young Adult movements while continuing to write poems. He officially made his debut as a poet with the publication of poems such as "Suyurieso" (수유리에서 In Suyuri)   In 1982, while working at a book-binding factory in the Guro Industrial Complex, Park actively engaged with activists in labor movements, student movements, culture movements of the masses, and Christian democracy movements. He participated as one of the leaders for various cultural activities and meetings, and founded the Folk Song Research Association (민요연구회) along with Shin Kyeong-nim, Im Jintaek, Jeong Huiseong, Gim Jeonghwan, and others. In 1984, he published a poetry collection, "Chwieopgonggopan apeseo" (취업공고판 앞에서 In Front of the Job Search Board) and a prose collection, "Gongjangoksange olla" (공장옥상에 올라 Up on the Factory Rooftop).