KB News Desk
The government of Ulleung-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, said Tuesday it will recruit people to live on South Korea’s easternmost Dokdo islets, which have been left at a population of zero after its only two registered residents died in recent years.
Officials said they will commence recruitment as soon as the only civilian residential facility on Dokdo is ready to take new occupants. Dokdo falls under the jurisdiction of Ulleung-gun, which includes Ulleungdo, an island where 8,768 people live as of June.
Kim Sung-do and Kim Shin-yeol had been the sole official residents of the tiny islets for decades, but Kim Sung-do died in 2018 and his wife followed in March of this year at the age of 88.
While Kim Shin-yeol has not actually lived on Dokdo since the residential facility was destroyed by Typhoon Haishen in 2020, she remained an official resident until her death.
Dokdo is also occupied by a handful of Ulleung-gun officials and a small police detachment, though none of them are officially registered residents of the islets.
However, county officials have been at an impasse with the Kim couple’s daughter and her husband since they attempted and failed to become registered residents of the Dokdo islets.
It was reported that county officials declined the request made by the Kims’ daughter, saying it is unclear if she and her husband actually planned to live on Dokdo and work in the fishing industry. A tiny group of volcanic islets, Dokdo has little in the way of residential space and water sources, making it virtually impossible to live off the land itself.
The county has requested that the Kim family remove from the facility any items that belonged to the deceased couple, but the family has so far refused to do so.
Ulleung-gun officials told the media that they cannot specify when recruitment will be conducted, but they do not intend to leave the Dokdo islets uninhabited by civilians.
While South Korea has maintained physical control of the Dokdo islets for more than 70 years, Japan’s overlapping territorial claim has long been a source of diplomatic tension.
