Isang Yun was born in 1917 in Tongyong in Korea: the son of the poet Ki-Hyong Yun, he studied music in Korea and Japan until 1943.

He was active in the resistance against the Japanese occupation of Korea, acted in a conspiracy and was held as a political prisoner.

From 1946 he was a music teacher in Tongyong and Pusan and after the Korean was taught at the University of Seoul.

From 1956 to 1959 he completed his studies in Paris and West Berlin (with Boris Blacher); he also took part in the Darmstadt courses.

Since 1959 his works have been performed at festivals of contemporary music; and they have now become part of the standard concert repertoire.

In 1964 Isang Yun made his home in West Berlin; in 1967 he was abducted to Seoul by the South Korean CIA of the Chun Hee Park regime and sentenced to jail for alleged communism.

As a result of international protests he was discharged in 1969 and returned to West Berlin.

In the years 1967-1970 he taught at the Musikhochschule in Hannover, and since 1970 he has been professor at the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin.

In 1971 he was granted German citizenship; he is a member of the Hamburg and West Berlin Academies of Art and a honorary doctor of Tübingen University.