Parts 5-8 of Nation and Destiny are a thinly fictionalized portrayal of the life of Isang Yun, a Korean-born composer who made his later career in Germany. Because of a visit in North Korea in 1963, he had been kidnapped from West-Berlin by the South Korean secret service in 1967 and released in 1969, returning to West Berlin. He made several more trips to the North during his life, and was a major advocate of peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas.