Guryong Village

Guryong Village (Korean: 구룡마을) is a shanty town in Seoul, South Korea. It is just across a six-lane motorway from Dogok-dong of the affluent Gangnam District. It has been called "the last slum in Seoul's glitzy Gangnam district", "the last shanty town in Gangnam", and "the last remaining urban slum in Seoul", although this claim has been treated skeptically due to the continued existence of at least two other notable areas. The settlement first arose around the time of the city's rapid development prior to the 1988 Olympic Games. It was an illegal settlement at the time, as it was built on privately owned land. The settlement persisted over decades, despite multiple efforts to resettle the residents. Beginning in the mid-2010s, the Seoul government has been gradually moving residents out of the area, and offering them apartments in the area or elsewhere at significantly reduced rents. By 2019, it was reported that 406 of 1,107 households...