{"id":2198361,"date":"2022-08-19T19:27:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T10:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2198361"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:44","slug":"seoul-wants-to-ban-subterranean-housing-but-residents-have-few-other-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/08\/seoul-wants-to-ban-subterranean-housing-but-residents-have-few-other-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Seoul wants to ban subterranean housing, but residents have few other options"},"content":{"rendered":"
Kim Young-ja had not seen her sister Oh Kyung-ja for 33 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After the death of their parents, poverty made life difficult for the siblings. Young-ja, then seven, was put up for adoption, and the sisters lost touch. In 1987, Kyung-ja married and moved to the United States. It was only thanks to a television program that tracked down long-lost loved ones that the sisters were reunited after decades apart.<\/span><\/p>\n While finally visiting South Korea for a family reunion, Kyung-ja decided to spend a night at Young-ja\u2019s semi-basement apartment known as “banjiha” made famous by the 2019 film \u201cParasite.\u201d Kyung-ja knew she would soon be returning home and wanted to maximize time with her long-lost sibling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That night torrential rains flooded the city, causing a landslide that engulfed Young-ja\u2019s unlicensed banjiha. Both sisters and Young-ja\u2019s two young daughters were killed.<\/span><\/p>\n One would be forgiven for thinking this is a recent story, a tale of loss from last week\u2019s record downpours that killed at least 14 people. But Young-ja died more than 20 years ago, in the Sillim neighborhood of southwest Seoul \u2014 the same flood-prone part of the city that President Yoon Suk-yeol surveyed when a 47-year-old woman, her older sister, and 13-year-old daughter drowned while trying to escape their flooded banjiha.<\/span><\/p>\n More South Koreans will likely die in their banjihas, a result of lax enforcement by successive administrations that appear unable or unwilling to provide secure and affordable housing for vulnerable populations.<\/span><\/p>\n