Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
County seeks to host Myanmar refugees amid population cliff
A woman walks past a barbershop in Yeongyang, a county in North Gyeongsang Province, in this Sept. 7, 2021, file photo. Yeongyang, a sleepy county with a population of just 15,000, is seeking to host refugees from Myanmar amid its demographic cliff. Korea Times photo by Cheong Kwang-jin
By Jung Min-ho
Yeongyang, a sleepy county with a population of just 15,000 in North Gyeongsang Province, is seeking to host refugees from Myanmar amid its demographic cliff.
According to the county office on Friday, its officials and those at the Ministry of Justice were discussing the policy idea of inviting 40 people from the war-torn Southeast Asian country to one of its villages and helping them settle there as part of efforts to address the issue of its shrinking number of residents.
If it goes as planned, 10 families of the Karen people, an ethnolinguistic group that primarily resides in southeastern Myanmar, will be invited to the county later this year.
Yeongyang has the lowest number of residents among counties in Korea, excluding islands.
The figure, which was higher than 70,000 in the early 1970s, has steadily decreased for decades. Its population fell by more than half in 20 years and dropped down to 15,271 in February 2025. Officials worry the figure will drop below 15,000 by the end of the year.
In recent years, officials have taken measures to reverse the trend, expanding direct cash support for babies born in the county, among other incentives. Despite this, the number of residents who die each year is far greater than those born. According to officials, only about 25 babies are born there annually.