After one semester, however, he dropped out and began a literary magazine with fellow writer Hwang Seok-u [ko].
During the 1920s, he became a proponent of a national literature for Korea and was one of the few writers who did not write in Japanese or publish fawning articles at the height of Japan's colonization.
[3] In 1928 he married Kim Yong-ok and joined the Chosun Ilbo as main editor of the Arts and Science section of that paper.
At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he was appointed an officer in the Navy and served in a journalistic capacity at naval headquarters.
He was appointed President of Seorabal College of Art [ko] in 1954 and, three years later, received an honorary degree in Public Administration from the Korea National Defense University.