Seoul doctor marks 53 years of free medical service at Joseph Clinic
Dr. Ko Young-cho climbed a narrow staircase in central Seoul’s Yongsan District, barely wide enough for one person. The walls blocked the sunlight, and the air smelled heavily of dampness. Ko, 73, moved up the steep steps with an old medical bag over his shoulder. Inside a cramped shack where empty soju bottles lay on the floor, Ko wrapped a blood pressure cuff around the arm of a 55-year-old man surnamed Ji, who struggles with severe alcoholism. "Your blood pressure is still high," Ko said. "I won’t tell you to stop drinking right away. Until I come next time, let’s try cutting it down to just one bottle a week." "I still think about drinking, but thanks to you, doctor, I’m better than before," Ji said, looking embarrassed. Ko held his hand. It was a small gesture, but for a man in a room few outsiders enter, it meant he had not been abandoned. Ko has spent 53 years providing medical care to people living at the edge of society. He began as a first-year medical student carrying heavy medicine boxes into hillside shantytowns. He is now an elderly doctor, but still serves Seoul's "
May 13, 2026By Hankookilbo
