Two of Korea’s most celebrated poets received the country’s highest cultural honor on Monday, as the government recognized 36 artists and cultural figures for their contributions to literature, the performing arts and other creative fields. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said earlier in the day that poets Yun Dong-ju and Kim Nam-jo would be posthumously awarded the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit, the highest grade of the government’s cultural honors. An awards ceremony was held at Modu Art Theater in Seoul’s Seodaemun District, with 17 people receiving Cultural Merit Orders, six receiving the Korea Culture and Arts Award, eight receiving the Young Artist of Today Award and five receiving the Distinguished Parents of Artists Award. Yun, a leading Korean poet during the Japanese colonial rule, left behind works that expressed national suffering and resistance through lyrical language and personal reflection. Kim devoted more than seven decades to writing poetry and essays, producing more than 1,000 poems and contributing to the development of modern Korean literature