Closer to North Korea than to Seoul, the Yeonpyeong Island has experienced many times the horrors of the war, even in the later years. Legends of the island being hunted are spreading through the locals and visitors alike of the people that have lost their life to it.
Korea has seen warfare throughout its time and the last one, The Korean War is technically not even over yet since it started in 1950 between the two Korean countries that started in a civil war and ended up as two fighting nations.
Near the border of the two Koreas, north and south, on the 38th parallel, there is an island called Yeonpyeong Island that is to this day disputed between the two parties. Although claimed by both, it is considered as part of and inhabited by South Koreans, but the island itself is so close to the North Korean border that you can almost see it. This has made the island exposed for North Korean retaliation and its bombs.
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Only a two hour ferry ride from Incheon, Seoul where the ongoing Korean war can seem like a strange fever dream, you can experience how close some of the residents of the island are to the war and how it still affects the people living there. And also catch a glimpse of the ghosts of those who succumbed to it as well?
The Bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island
This island has also taken its share of bombings, and military attacks since the war started in 1950. The last big attack happened on November 23th in 2010 and led to the islanders having to flee their home island temporarily and got a lot of international attention as the world condemned the action of North Korea.
The North Korean military bombarded the island where the disputed land was guarded by South Korean forces, ending up hitting civilians as well as military people, killing 4 and injuring 19 people. This incident is one of the things that are said to have escalated the tension on the Korean Peninsula in the later years.
After this, many chose to never return and would rather stay on the South Korean mainland after the attacks for a long time, creating a sort of ghost town feeling to the once bustling fishing community. And although by now most have returned, there are still those who never looked back to their original home.
The Hauntings of Yeonpyeong Island
The island is believed to be a place of spirits of both lost and vengeful ones according to the locals that are haunting the island.
The island tops many of the lists of articles like: Most Haunted in Korea and the likes. Although this claim is mostly found on websites in English, not so much on the Korean ones.
The look of the Yongma Land Abandoned Theme Park in South-Korea has made it a popular place for a photoshoot during the day. But an abandoned place like this also comes with haunting rumors about a little girl that tragically died on one of the rides and that haunts the empty place as a ghost to this day.
Abandoned amusement parks are one of the most beautiful haunted places to exist. Yongma Land (용마랜드) opened in 1980 as a family friendly amusement park and was a popular destination for the local families the first decade after it opened in Seoul in South Korea.
But then, bigger and brighter amusement parks like Lotte World opened in 1989 and people turned to that instead and they closed down in 2011. But was it only because of poor business that the park decided to shut down the rides, or was it because of a tragic death that the legend will have it as?
The Ghost in Yongma Land
The hauntings of the place are not only the close down rides and eerie mood that surrounds the place after dark according to popular rumors and legends. Reports of the voice of a little girl is something more than one visitor has heard among the silent amusement rides and 80s nostalgia. This is supposedly the voice of a little girl that allegedly died on a ride back in 2011.
This is the very incident that is said to have been the reason that the park closed down back in 2011, though no evidence of this incident to have ever occured has been provided and is most likely the rumor the atmosphere creates. And the official statement is that Yongma Land closed down due to poor business.
Even so, a handful of people still claim that the voice of a girl like this is exactly what they heard in the supposedly abandoned amusement park.
K-Pop and Showbiz
This reportedly haunted place is not only for the paranormal interested either and the main attraction is not for paranormal seekers but rather people looking for a good location for a photoshoot.
This abandoned theme park has in the later years been the site of music videos of iconic K-pop groups like Twice’s ‘Like OOH-AHH’ and Crayon Pop’s ‘Bar Bar Bar’ used this place to shoot.
It has also been featured in numrous of K-Dramas and famous idols photoshoots and therefore tourists visits not only for the ghosts, but also for their favorite idols music videos sites and to relive scenes from their drama series.
It has a certain rustic charm to it in daylight for a beautiful backdrop in photos and videos. Even today you can walk around in the 80 nostalgia of Sailor Moon statues and vintage looking posters and rides.
But when the darkness befalls the silent joy rides and the rest of the park, the mood changes to a slightly more haunted one, even when the caretaker of the place turns on the lights for your night shoots.
Although a closed down park, the place still has its entrance fees at around 10 000 KRW for an adult to behold the wonderful magic of decay and nostalgia all in one, and perhaps take a moment to listen for the sound of a little girl among the silent and closed down rides.
When unexplained deaths of seemingly healthy and young men occur around the same time and same place there are many Thai people who believe it is the Widow Ghost who is after their men, and they have their own way of holding the seemingly paranormal death at bay.
In some parts of rural Thailand, especially in the northeastern parts, men are afraid of falling asleep in fear of dying because a ghost sought them out as a mate. There are sometimes waves of panic where a fear of the widow ghost trying to take them during the night, are keeping them awake.
But whether it is a paranormal explanation or a scientific one still has the local villagers and medical personnel divided.
Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome or Lai-Tai
From time to time, there will be cases where more than one man in a geographic area will die during the same time, perhaps under mysterious circumstances at first glance. Like in the 1990s there were many unexplained deaths of a group of Thai workers in their sleep in the northeastern parts of Thailand. It was referred to as ‘Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome’ by Thai doctors.
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This particular syndrome (SUNDS), is a disorder found in southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Japan, Philippines and Cambodia, which causes sudden cardiac death, mostly during sleep. In Thailand it also goes under the name lai-tai Lai (dreaming, screaming) Tai (death). It is however not the name of the Widow Ghost as it is cited as in many articles. But what is this ghost?
The Widow Ghost
The unexplained deaths got a more paranormal explanation to it and the legend of the vengeful spirit or the widow ghost fitted the narrative. She is an evil spirit that hunts men at night and steals the men from their bed.
Protection from the Widow Ghost: A scarecrow dressed in red with an erect penis was considered the remedy when the fear of her reached Nakhon Phanom in 2018 // Photo: AsiaWire/thairath
The story about the widow ghost is not a particularly new one, but it definitely is one of the more persistent ones. Around the same time as this was happening in northeastern parts of Thailand, more of the same mysterious deaths occurred among Thai workers both in Malaysia and Singapore. What was this thing that took the lives of so many of their men? Over the years before there was anyone trying to explain this in a scientific way, they had figured out ways to protect themselves from the sudden deaths.
To protect themselves from this, the men themselves as well as their mothers or wives took measures according to superstition to defend themselves and their men. Some put on lipstick or nail polish, or even dress up in womens clothing before going to bed. By doing this, they hoped to fool the widow ghost into thinking they were in fact women and would leave them alone.
There was also a very traditional Thai way of protecting their home where they hung phallic symbols around their necks, over the doors and at the village gates for protection. Many Thai people believe that phallic symbols bring good luck and good business. The bigger the penis, the better the business. There is also the habit of putting scarecrows with erect penises to distract or even hunt the Widow Ghost.
This is the case in Thung Nang Oak, a rural village in Thailand where they have a very phallic symbol for their commune, more than 3 feet long and weighing 22 pounds. One of the reasons for putting that on display was because of the terrible nightmares to the local men that was an indication that the Widow ghost was on her way.
Deadly Health and Diets
However, even with this protection, there would still be death, and a man died in his sleep, even though he wore red nail polish. The Thai public Health Ministry concluded the deaths were not caused by a spirit, but a bad diet of carbohydrate and sugar worsened by both physical and mental strain. This was after the Thai health authorities investigated over 700 of these mysterious deaths from Thai workers in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei since 1983 to the 90s, and many more back in Thailand.
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This seems extreme, but the fact is that at least back in the day, the Thai workers from the northeastern provinces lived on just white rice with a sweet syrup, overproducing insulin and lacking both potassium and vitamin B-1.
Since then, the Public Health Ministry launched campaigns where they tried to advocate for the value of a more balanced diet with more nutrients to stop the panic. But did it work?
Fighting Ghosts with Phallic Symbols
Seems like this is not a problem that only existed, ‘back in the day’. In 2018, there was another wave of panic after five young men died in a few weeks. This was also in northeast Thailand in the remote Nakhon Phanom province. In a small village of 90 people, they resorted to old ways when five of their healthy and young men died suddenly in their sleep.
They were otherwise seemingly healthy and went to bed after taking a bath as per usual. They were all found dead by their families the next morning.
There are no man here: Red shirts are hung up in the fences, trees and doors. They are all trying to tell the widow ghost that there are no men in the house and urging her to pass on over to the next. //Photo: Sanook
The legend of the Widow Ghost came back and so did the old remedies to fight her and protect the men. Huge scarecrows with an impressive 80 cm erect penises were placed on the gates. They hung signs saying ‘There is no man here’ ( “บ้านนี้ไม่มีผู้ชาย”) to confuse the ghost. Often they also hang out red t-shirts as it is a color for women and alludes to the fact that there are only women at home, in the hope the ghost will ignore the house and move on to the next. The men were dressed in dresses and painted with makeup to protect them from being stolen by the ghost in their sleep.
As not a single man died the following week since the scarecrows were put up and the nails painted, they thought that it must have worked.
However, in neighbouringing villages and other cities there were similar cases and panic about the widow ghost. Most of these deaths most likely didn’t have an official autopsy, as it often is. But authorities claim that there is a more logical explanation to it all. In many cases where they have done autopsies, there is the case of malnutrition as well as heart diseases, respiratory failure and other illnesses or accidents.
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
