"I was sure that I would one day receive the Nobel Prize," a French publishing company published by Han Kang.

Grasset, a French publisher that published author Han Kang's novel "I Don't Say Goodbye" in French, greatly welcomed the news of Han Kang's award.

"The news of Han Kang's win was a great surprise and joy to all of us," said Johakim Schneff, editor of Grasse.

"I was sure that one day he would win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but I never thought that today would be the day," Schneff said.

The judge said he will print additional works around a strip that contains the news of Han Kang's Nobel Prize.

He also hopes to publish Han Kang's poems in French next year, Schneff added.

Han Kang's "Do Not Say Goodbye," published by Grase under the title Impossibles adieux, was the first Korean to receive the Medici Foreign Literature Award, one of the four major French literature awards, last year.