Two years later in 2003, Kim's reputation as a writer of exceptional talent was confirmed when his first published short-story “Cremation” was chosen as the winner of Lee Sang Literature Prize.

Grounded in his journalistic background, his writing style is polished and unsentimental, and Kim crafts his sentences masterfully to infuse lyrical rhythm to his work without sacrificing clarity and poise.

Kim's ability to identify pertinent details and moments of significance in the chaos of life-or-death situations, which he perfected in his line of work as a reporter, can be seen in his first novel, "Memories of Earthenware with Comb Teeth Pattern".

Written in the form of a detective story involving the mysterious death of a firefighter, the novel presents a palpably real portrait of the battle with raging fire, and investigates the intensity of human emotions in dire circumstances with acuity, subtlety and insight.

In his second novel, "Song of the Sword", Kim gives us a powerful picture of General Yi Sun-sin, not as a mere war-hero, but as an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances and struggling with the complexity of his own interior landscape.