'Feels like 35 degrees' Residents of jjokbangchon without fans... "It's rather cooler outside"

On the afternoon of the 31st at 1 PM, the children's playground near the Dongja-dong jjokbangchon in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, was sweltering with temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius. Although staying indoors would have been cooler in the heatwave, about 20 elderly residents of the jjokbangchon had gathered at the playground. They had actually come out of their homes to escape the heat. Despite the occasional hot wind, the elderly said, "Ah, it's cool," with delight. Some of them even quenched their thirst with Makgeolli.

Residents of the jjokbangchon community having a conversation at the playground.
Photo by Gong Byung-sun mydillon@

Mun Jang-seok (72, male), who has lived in the jjokbangchon for 20 years, comes to the playground every day after having breakfast at 7:30 AM. His home is so hot that it is difficult to even stay inside. He sits in the playground and moves to a free meal center around lunchtime and dinnertime. After dinner, when the sun sets, he heads back home. Only then has the house cooled enough to enter. Recently, Mun threw away his fan amid this heat. It was the eighth house he moved to, and there was simply no place to put a fan. Mun said, "In early summer, if I put up a mosquito net and opened the windows and front door, the breeze would cool things down," adding, "Now it’s so hot that it’s hard to endure, so I came outside."

The worsening heatwave is hitting socially vulnerable groups hard. According to the fire department, at least 12 people nationwide died from the heatwave during the heatwave warning period from the 29th to the 30th of last month. This already exceeds the total of 9 deaths last year. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s 'Heat-related Illness Emergency Room Surveillance System' report, from May 20 to the 30th of last month, 1,117 heat-related illness cases occurred, an increase of 69 compared to the same period last year.

On the 31st, when the perceived temperature reached 35 degrees, residents of the shantytown in Dongja-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, who came outside their homes to escape the heat, gathered in small groups in a park and chatted.
Photo by Gong Byung-sun mydillon@

The jjokbangchon is one of the most vulnerable places to the heatwave. Most homes lack proper cooling facilities. Many places do not even have bathing facilities, making washing with cold water a luxury. Kim Yoon-hee (44, female), who lives in Dongja-dong, said, "Now summer is harder than winter," adding, "In winter, you can turn on the boiler and bundle up in clothes, so it’s not cold, but in summer, even if you turn on the fan, only hot air comes out. It has become so hot that it’s really dizzying." Mun also said, "My limbs go numb and tremble, so it’s hard to leave the house, but I can’t just stew to death. Elderly people with mobility difficulties probably can’t even come out and are struggling with the heatwave."

An elderly man living in the Dongja-dong gosiwon village in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, is smoking a cigarette to escape the heat.
Photo by Gong Byung-seon mydillon@

The scene in the jjokbangchon during the heatwave offers a glimpse of concerns that the climate crisis will soon become a human rights issue. The National Human Rights Commission recently stated, "The climate crisis is the greatest threat that has very widespread negative impacts on human rights," and emphasized, "It is necessary to analyze the threats climate change poses to vulnerable groups’ employment, working conditions, housing, health, and hygiene, and to prepare measures to protect vulnerable groups and strengthen their adaptive capacity."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.