Shin Dong-wook
South Korean actor
Shin Dong-wook (Korean: 신동욱; born September 14, 1982), birth name Shin Hwa-shik, is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his leading roles in Soulmate and Cloud Stairs (both in 2006), and his supporting role in War of Money (2007).
Career
In November 2016, Shin published his first novel, Writing, Space Journal about a man in a space elevator construction project that drifts into the galaxy, a love story between a cranky genius businessperson and a genius theoretical physicist. Soon after that, he appeared on TV for the first time in 6 years in a short video.
After a seven year hiatus in May 2017, Shin made his acting comeback with a supporting role in the drama The Guardians, in which he took a role of a Catholic priest. Later that year he was cast in the police procedural drama Live as a policeman.
In 2018, Shin took a main role in the romance drama Dae Jang Geum Is Watching alongside Kwon Yu-ri.
Personal life
Shin stayed out of the public eye for 6 years, since 2011, when he was discharged early from mandatory military service upon diagnosis of a rare condition, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a chronic disease that causes extreme bouts of pain without a known cause or cure.
On May 24, 2017, Shin appeared as a guest in the Radio Star Episode 528 and assured his illness is under control.
In July 2018, Shin's agency confirmed that he is in a relationship with a Korean traditional medicine doctor who is nine years his junior who has been a long term fan of his.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shin Dong-wook” is south Korean actor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shin, Dong-wook and South, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “south Korean actor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q626064. VIAF identifies the subject as 421148995961359751325. The Library of Congress control number is no2017004686. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 2006, 2007 and 2016.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shin Dong-wook”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shin Dong-wook primary sources, Shin Dong-wook archive and Shin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shin Dong-wook”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Shin Dong-wook” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.