📍Boryeong, South Korea
At 10 years old, Lyoo Chan-hee wishes he wasn't one of the last three schoolkids left playing on the beaches of Nokdo island.
Instead, he plays with 66-year-old Kim Si-young, one of the last 100 or so residents reut.rs/38MTOFL 1/6
At 10 years old, Lyoo Chan-hee wishes he wasn't one of the last three schoolkids left playing on the beaches of Nokdo island.
Instead, he plays with 66-year-old Kim Si-young, one of the last 100 or so residents reut.rs/38MTOFL 1/6
🎣 Nokdo island was once a vibrant fishing village. The decline in residency is emblematic of the demographic crisis unfolding in South Korea 2/6
🏙 After decades of national urbanisation, and a long-gone birth control drive, Nokdo's school is long shut.
‘I cried so much (when the island school closed in 2006),’ said Kim 3/6
‘I cried so much (when the island school closed in 2006),’ said Kim 3/6
🏠 Soaring home prices in Seoul metropolitan area, where almost half of the nation's 51 million population now live, have been blamed for fewer babies in the country. Last year, the pandemic also discouraged couples from marrying and having kids.
Homes on Nokdo island 👇 4/6
Homes on Nokdo island 👇 4/6
🚍 ’Seoul is so crowded, noisy and the air is not good,’ said Chan-hee. ‘Nokdo has no traffic, isn't noisy and the air is clean. I can play outside more actively, so I like it here’ 5/6
Read more about the last children on South Korea’s ageing island reut.rs/38MTOFL 📷 Kim Hong-Ji ✍️ Cynthia Kim 6/6
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