Kwon Roh-gap, close aide to the late President Kim Dae-jung and senior advisor of the main opposition Democratic Party, is to enter the graduate school of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies to earn a master’s degree in English literature.

“To learn the unknown is my greatest pleasure,” said the Kwon, 81. “This will be my first campus experience in 50 years and I hope that my health conditions will allow me to carry on up to the doctor’s degree, too.“

Kwon’s devotion to English literature goes back decades.

As an economics student in Dongguk University in the 1950s, he minored in English literature, spending his spare time taking night classes in English poetry.

During the 1950-1953 Korean War, while he was a refugee in Busan, he also worked as an interpreter for the United Nations forces.

His three-year career as a high school English teacher in his hometown of Mokpo came to a halt in 1963 when he entered politics as an aide to Kim, but his passion for English seemingly never faded.

After retiring from politics in 2007, he immediately took private lessons at a language academy in Seoul. In February 2009, he left for Hawaii to take a one-year language course but, six months later, was summoned home upon the death of the late president.

Kwon will begin attending university next month.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)