[2] Cho Hae-il was born April 18, 1941, in Manchukuo and was originally given the name Haeryong, which means "Sea Dragon".
During the war his family joined the stream of refugees who retreated to Busan, only returning to Seoul in 1954 after the cessation of hostilities.
[3] In 1961 he entered Kyunghee University, where he majored in Korean literature and met Hwang Sunwon, one of the greatest senior writers in Korea.
Over the next few years Cho was quite prolific, publishing at least twelve short stories and the novella America between his first work and 1974.
His America (in English) tells the story of a man and local society deformed by the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea.