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Climate change continues to wreak havoc. When will people wake up.
About 500 people were evacuated on Friday after fire broke out in a shanty town in the South Korean capital, Seoul, fire authorities said.
The fire erupted at 6:27 a.m. (0927 GMT) in Guryong Village in southern Seoul, which is home to more than 660 households.
About 40 homes in the 1,700-square-meter (18,000-square-foot) area have been destroyed, fire officials said, with about 290 firefighters, 10 helicopters and police officers dispatched to contain the blaze. No casualties were reported.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, called for all-out efforts to minimise the damage and mobilise all available firefighters and equipment, his spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said.
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min also instructed officials to prevent secondary damage and protect residents in nearby areas, the ministry said.
One of the last remaining slums, the village is a symbol of inequality in Asia's fourth-largest economy just next to the flashy, affluent district of Gangnam. >

Who else was  surprised to know SK  even had shanty towns? >

Yeah I wonder if it's like a translation thing... >

Interesting there are still a few slums in SK. >

Poverty exists everywhere. >

In a protracted battle with residents?  Nothing a little fire can't fix.
I predict another glitzy neighborhood in its place.  Some things are the same the world around. >


About 500 people were evacuated on Friday after fire broke out in a shanty town in the South Korean capital, Seoul, fire authorities said.
The fire erupted at 6:27 a.m. (0927 GMT) in Guryong Village in southern Seoul, which is home to more than 660 households.
About 40 homes in the 1,700-square-meter (18,000-square-foot) area have been destroyed, fire officials said, with about 290 firefighters, 10 helicopters and police officers dispatched to contain the blaze. No casualties were reported.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, called for all-out efforts to minimise the damage and mobilise all available firefighters and equipment, his spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said.
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min also instructed officials to prevent secondary damage and protect residents in nearby areas, the ministry said.
One of the last remaining slums, the village is a symbol of inequality in Asia's fourth-largest economy just next to the flashy, affluent district of Gangnam. >

Not the first time SK thugs would be hired to evict shantytown residents. >

Who else was  surprised to know SK  even had shanty towns? >

SAME!!! I thought maybe by “shanty” towns they meant some tents like you see on streets in some Canadian and American cities or run down communist-era apartment blocks like you see in Eastern Europe or the beat up Banlieues of France — but nope, that’s a legit shanty town like you’d see in a contemporary Third World hellhole or a Great Depression-era Western country, and a massive-looking one at that. 
What makes this even more remarkable is that South Korea doesn’t exactly have a bunch of asylum seekers or immigrants down on their luck like places in North America or Europe, so the vast majority of these people are probably their own citizens. In addition, drug use and availability in South Korea is also a fraction of what it is in the West, so it’s not like these are methed-out crazies or needle-poking zombies like you might see in Vancouver, Berlin or Los Angeles — these are probably mostly just normal people facing hard times. It’s crazy and sad, but South Korea was poorer than colonial Congo within living memory as late as the 60s so I guess it makes sense a part of it is still a festering shithole. I guess when you look closer their economy is pretty much just Samsung, K-Pop, and cheap cars that knockoff Western and Japanese models. >

In a protracted battle with residents?  Nothing a little fire can't fix.
I predict another glitzy neighborhood in its place.  Some things are the same the world around. >

Did not know there’s shanty towns in SK >

Korea was legit a third world country and used to receive aid from countries that are now considered to be poor. It’s also why shipping from here is cheaper because we are still listed as a developing nation under the international mailing system. In my opinion the fire was started on purpose. The Seoul government has been systematically wiping out any evidence of slums or vestiges of old Korea since around 2010. The red light district and pohang tents outside of Yongsan station were raised and replaced with luxury high-rise apartments. Thugs were hired to beat up and destroy the carts of street vendors in Gangnam. As a resident of Itaewon I believe that the government was intentionally negligent concerning the Halloween tragedy in order to further gentrify the neighborhood. >

Capitalist hellhole >

Interesting there are still a few slums in SK. >

Poverty exists everywhere.