Samcheok coal mine shuts down after 89 years, leaving town in limbo
The coal may be gone, but the dust hasn’t settled in Dogye. Home to more than 50,000 people in the 1980s, the mining town in Samcheok, a coastal city in Gangwon Province, has watched its population shrink to just under 9,000. On June 30, the town’s last economic lifeline, the Korea Coal Corporation’s Dogye Mine, shut down after 89 years of operation. The mine’s closure was not unexpected, but for many locals, the abrupt end and lack of meaningful alternatives feel like an abandonment. Kim Gwang-tae, 59, head of the Joint Committee Against the Closure of the Korea Coal Corporation’s Dogye Mine, described the current reality facing him and his neighbors, saying, “We are alive, but our way of life is no longer guaranteed.” At a protest site in front of the mine’s main building, Kim sits beneath a tent that has stood for over seven months. For Kim and his fellow protesters, the pain lies not just in the loss of jobs, but in the uncertainty of what comes next. The residents argue that unlike other recently shuttered mines such as Hwasun and Jangseong, Dogye still had extractab
Jul 16, 2025By Hankookilbo
