This was the wish of 82-year-old Park Kkotnim (pseudonym), whom I met in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul on April 17. It was after the heavy downpours of August 2022. When a neighbor who also lived in a semi-basement room like Park passed away due to flooding, she thought, "I want to avoid such a death." Two years have passed since then, but there is still no water barrier on the window of her semi-basement room. No district office staff have come to check on her. All she can do is pray.

The thing that makes his semi-basement life most miserable is the humidity. It's not that summer has come because the weather got hotter.

When the heavy, moisture-laden air settles down and the smell of mold spreads everywhere, only then do you truly feel that summer has arrived.

When a sudden suffocating feeling, as if submerged underwater, rises up to your chin, heavy rain pours down. Photo by Getty Images Bank

What is more frightening than the oppressive humidity is flooding.

I wake up several times in my sleep to check if the falling rainwater is flowing down the wallpaper and pouring into the room.DALL·E3

Park ended up living in a semi-basement room after she was no longer able to do regular work. When she was younger, she made food and washed dishes at restaurants. She traded her health?her back and knees?for a living, but was never able to save money. As she grew older, her back and knees gradually deteriorated. As her back became more bent, she could no longer find work at restaurants. The pain made it hard for her to even move around.

Still, life went on. To pay for her medication, she had to cut costs. The biggest expense was housing. The only place she could afford to lay her body down was a semi-basement room. She said, "I only earn 20,000 to 30,000 won a week, so I have to save as much as possible," adding, "I have no family and I don't know how much longer I'll live, so for now, the semi-basement is the most suitable place for me."

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Like Park, there are an estimated 202,741 households (in basement and semi-basement homes as of 2021) in Seoul who have settled underground to reduce housing costs. This accounts for 5% of Seoul's total 4,046,799 households. In a city where news of apartments selling for over 10 billion won or 300 million won per pyeong is reported daily, 5% of residents live weighed down by humidity, monsoon rains, and poverty.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration's "2025 Summer Climate Outlook," there is a 40% probability that this summer's rainfall will be either similar to or greater than the average. In particular, it warned of sudden, localized downpours caused by developed low pressure systems and atmospheric instability during the summer. In 2022, three members of a family living in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul died due to short-term, concentrated rainfall. In July 2023, 14 people died when the Osong underground roadway in Cheongju was flooded by heavy rain.