Pastor, poet and democratization/unification activist
| Life | 1918 ~ 1994 |
| Era | 현대 |
| Clan | 남평 문씨 |
Mun Ik-hwan (文益煥, 1918-1994) was a Protestant pastor, biblical scholar and poet whose ancestral seat was Nampyeong. Born in Myeongdong Village, Longjing, Jilin, China, he was a son of Mun Jae-rin and Kim Sin-muk. His younger brother Mun Dong-hwan was also a pastor and social activist, and the actor Mun Seong-geun is his son.
In the 1970s he took part in translating the Common Translation Bible as the Protestant representative and wrote the History of the Hebrew People, interpreting the Old Testament from the people's perspective. He debuted as a poet in 1972 and left collections such as Saesamseureon Haru. He was jailed several times for democratization activism under the Yushin regime, became chair of the Federation for Democracy and Unification of the People in 1985, and in 1989 visited North Korea without prior government consent and met Kim Il-sung, for which he served a sentence under the National Security Act. He died of a heart attack in 1994.