A son of a wealthy landowner, like many other young Korean intellectuals Kim took his higher education in Japan, attending the Meiji Academy in Tokyo and entering the Kawabata School of Fine Arts.

In 1925, Kim published one of his most famous works, "Potato," which was a breakthrough in Korean "realist" fiction and a further salvo in his ongoing literary war with Yi Kwang-su.

[3] In 1939, still poor and now ill, Kim joined Park Yong-hui, Lim Hak-su and others in a visit to Manchuria that was sponsored by the North Chinese Imperial Army.

[3] In 1946, after Korean liberation, Kim was critical in forming the Pan-Korea Writers Association which countered other organizations promoting proletarian literature.

He first drew attention with the publication of such naturalist stories as “Distinguished Statement” (Myeongmun, 1924), “Hwang the Rustic” (Sigol Hwangseobang, 1925) and “Potato” (Gamja, 1921).

In particular, “Potato,”a story of a woman who gradually loses all sense of decency and degenerates into a common prostitute as she tries to overcome economic hardships, is noted for the author’s use of realism and deterministic viewpoint to defy traditional morality and the didactic use of literature advocated by Yi Kwang-su’s enlightenment movement.