Pak Noja

Pak worked on translating Korean literature into Russian and wrote several liberal arts and sociology books about Korean culture and politics, including his best-selling book, ‘your Korea (당신들의 대한민국)’. His writings made him known as one of Korea’s influential progressive intellectuals, and brought on many controversial issues within Korea by sharp criticism.

In 2009, he made the remark that the "Korean economy will be annexed by the Chinese economic zone within 5–10 years". The Korean left responded critically to this claim, but Pak went on to clarify his thesis. According to his column, "it is not proper, I just said inescapable".

Pak was born as Vladimir Tikhonov to a Jewish family in Leningrad, Soviet Union. His Russian name is Vladimir Tikhonov (Russian: Владимир Тихонов), but after immigrating to South Korea in 1997, he changed his name into a Korean name, Pak Noja and became naturalized as a South Korean citizen in 2001.

While working on his degree, in 1992, Pak met a Korean violinist, Paik Myong-jong (백명정, 1971- ) who was at that time studying at the Leningrad University of Russia; they married in 1995.

Fascinated by Korean movies and classical literature during his high school days, he decided to study Korean history. In his 16th year, he entered the department of Korean studies at St. Petersburg National University of Russia, and he made his first visit to Korea as an exchange student in 1991 and stayed in Seoul for about 3 months.

Pak Noja (born on February 5, 1973) is a Russian-born South Korean academic of Korean studies, and columnist.