Old corpses discovered in YouTube videos of abandoned homes spotlight Korea’s empty home crisis
A video filmed by a Korean YouTuber who explores abandoned houses in rural areas and edits the footage like horror movies has gone viral, as it features the discovery of a long-decomposed corpse.
Dosauchi, a creator with 110,000 subscribers, made a report to police after stumbling upon the body inside a derelict resort in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, according to his YouTube channel on Sunday.
In the video uploaded on Sept. 16, titled “Rest in Peace,” the YouTuber discovered the corpse on a bed in one of the guest rooms at the resort that had ceased operations after a fire in August 2023.
The footage revealed a room sealed shut with plastic, with piles of dead beetles lying at the doorway.
The YouTuber had made a similar report in August last year, when he discovered a body in a car parked outside a run-down building in Sokcho, Gangwon Province.
Cases of YouTubers finding bodies in abandoned houses are on the rise, as many rural properties that have been closed down remain neglected without oversight from local governments.
There were about 134,000 vacant houses nationwide as of 2024, according to data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
In December 2023, two YouTubers in their 20s discovered a body, believed to be of someone in their 40s to 60s, inside an abandoned house in Haenggu-dong, Wonju, Gangwon Province, according to news reports.
Experts say that abandoned houses, often sites of suicides and lonely deaths, are turning into content for some clickbait YouTubers, and urge stronger government policies to address the issue.
“Since abandoned houses are hidden from the public eye, some people choose them as the place to end their lives. With more elderly people living alone in an aging society, lonely deaths are increasingly being discovered in homes left vacant and neglected after redevelopment projects stall,” said Jeong Soon-dol, a social welfare professor at Ewha Womans University.
“Measures such as renovating vacant homes into affordable housing or repurposing them for senior care are necessary,” she said.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has been carrying out the “vacant house maintenance project” in cooperation with local governments since last year, providing monetary support for demolition. It funded the demolition of 841 vacant houses across 39 cities and counties in 11 provinces. For this year, the ministry set a goal of clearing 1,500 houses in 16 provinces.
