Three books Han Sung-sook left behind — required reading for civil servants?

"Isn't the CEO someone who struts like a peacock in full plumage on the outside, while in reality being no more than a slug — a creature without even a shell to protect itself?" — from Park So-ryeong's "Passing Through Failure"

"His debt was not the trace of extravagance but the repair cost he paid to put himself — as a labor product — on the market." — from Park Ki-tae's "Youth Bankruptcy"

"The word 'annyeong' carries both 'hello' and 'goodbye' at the same time." "How do you tell them apart?" "You just know." — from Kim Ae-ran's "I Said Goodbye"

Han Sung-sook was appointed prime minister on Tuesday after serving as minister of SMEs and Startups. As minister, she had originally planned to read books with the reporters covering the ministry and hold monthly discussions. But preparations for a one-year press briefing, followed by her sudden nomination as prime minister and the confirmation hearing process, derailed those plans.

Instead, Han left the press corps three books as a parting gift: "Passing Through Failure," a memoir documenting a startup founder's setbacks; "Youth Bankruptcy," which examines why young people fall into debt; and "I Said Goodbye," a novel about loss and recovery. All three speak more to failure than success, and more to people than results — a reflection, observers say, of Han's policy philosophy.

"All three are books Prime Minister Han actually read herself. My understanding is that she gave reporters books she had found particularly meaningful," a Ministry of SMEs and Startups official said. Han also left a copy of "Passing Through Failure" on the desk of a ministry employee on their birthday.

Of the three titles, the one drawing the most attention is "Passing Through Failure" by Park So-ryeong, founder of the content platform Publy. It tells the story of a journalist who believed content could change the world, built Publy into a growing company, and ultimately sold it. This is no ordinary success story. The book is an unflinching account of failure — a memoir that chronicles investment decisions, organizational challenges, leadership shortcomings, business setbacks and even the painful layoffs the founder herself carried out.

Park views failure not as a flaw to be hidden but as a passage that must be crossed to move forward. She writes with quiet candor about how a CEO is not a perfect being but a person who shoulders countless anxieties and responsibilities alone. Running through the book is a message that the startup ecosystem must tolerate failure and make second chances possible.

That message resonates with the policies Han championed as minister of SMEs and Startups, when she pushed to invigorate entrepreneurship and support those trying again after failure. The ministry has pursued re-startup support and expanded programs for failed entrepreneurs seeking a second chance as core policy priorities.

Park Ki-tae's "Youth Bankruptcy" argues that young people's debt — which can look like personal failure — is in fact a symptom of structural social problems. The author, a lawyer who has handled personal rehabilitation and bankruptcy cases, uses the stories of young clients to explain how job scarcity, high residential costs, living-expense loans and failed startups combine to create a vicious cycle of debt.

The book insists that young people's debt is not the result of laziness. The author's view is that youth debt is not the product of extravagance but the cost paid to enter the labor market, and that personal rehabilitation and bankruptcy are not marks of failure but social safety nets that allow people to start over.

Kim Ae-ran's new short-story collection "I Said Goodbye" differs in genre from the first two books but shares their sensibility. The collection comprises seven stories that delicately portray the deaths of family members, partings, shifting relationships and the losses that ordinary people endure. As the title suggests, one of its most striking passages notes that the Korean word "annyeong" holds both greeting and farewell at once.

The three books each address a different subject — a founder's failure, a young person's frustration, an individual's loss — but ultimately carry a single shared message: that failure and setbacks can come to anyone, and what matters is building a society and community where people can rise again.

Han has been recognized as a symbol of AI and digital innovation since her time as chief executive of Naver, and she carried that focus into her tenure as minister of SMEs and Startups, where AI transformation and startup development were her flagship policies.

The prime ministership is often described as the highest position below only the president — the head of the civil service. The prime minister holds direct or indirect influence over more than 20,000 civil servant appointments.