South Korean novelist Han Kang has expressed dismay about the short-lived period of martial law in her country earlier this week.

Han, who is this year's Nobel Literature Prize laureate, was speaking in Stockholm on Friday ahead of the awards ceremony.

She says she watched live footage of the chaos unfolding outside the National Assembly after President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law late on Tuesday. Lawmakers voted to reverse the decision just hours later.

She said, "Like many South Koreans, I am deeply shocked over the last few days by the news of a martial law situation unfolding in 2024."

Han says she was astonished to see citizens using their bare hands to hold back soldiers. She also says she sensed an inner conflict in the troops.

One of Han's books is based on a deadly military crackdown in Gwangju in 1980, when South Korea was under martial law.

The novelist said, "I sincerely hope we will not go back to the age of control and suppression of speech."

The Swedish Academy awarded Han the Nobel Prize "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."