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The Spirits and Ghosts of Yeonpyeong Island

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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 Bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island: Yeonpyeong-do on fire cause by the brutal attack of North Korea’s shelling, November 23.//Source//대한민국 국군 Republic of Korea Armed Forces

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. 

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8 Haunted Places In South Korea You Didn’t Know Existed

Haunted by Attack, Few Return to Island 

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Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

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What kind of tragedy can be so horrible that it is mostly silenced and forgotten by the world? The massacre of thousands of people that were found in the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine is one of them. But although often ignored and not talked about in the later years, the haunting rumors of ghosts from the past still has a firm clasp of the place. 

There used to be an abandoned cobalt mine in Gyeongsan in South Korea in full operation and a little easier to access than it is today.

The Cobalt Mine was used during the Japanese occupation where the Japanese used Korean labor to mine gold, silver and then eventually, cobalt, but abandoned it when the mine was emptied. 

During the Korean war, many people, civilians as well as convicts were accused of conspiring with the communists and North Korea. Many of them were brutally massacred in the area and their bodies were thrown into the mines to be forgotten in this so-called Red Hunt from July to September in 1950. 

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The Massacre in the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

It is believed that many of the victims were political prisoners that were supposed to be moved from Daegu Prison to Busan Prison and it is estimated that around 2000 to 3 500 people were murdered and tossed into the mines. 

Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine: A massacre is hiding inside the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine.

There is to this day not spoken a lot about the war crimes that happened and a lot of it has been silenced by both parties. Even by the families that were affected by the massacre as they even to this fear can feel fear of the guilt by association that many of the victims of the massacre was. 

The families affected by this have still not gotten their apology and answers for what happened to their family members as most of the skeletons found have never really been examined and the entrance to the mines simply sealed off.

And most likely, what really happened probably never will see the light of day. 

The Hauntings of Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

But their ghosts created legends of their own as sites of huge atrocities and tragedies have occurred. 

Many legends surround the last owners of the mine that brutally died as well as factory owners of factories that were built close to the mine. One of the last companies to be in operation around the same parts as the mine was a glasses manufacturer. 

The owner of said factury is said to have poured petroleum over himself as well as his sleeping employees before setting them all on fire. They all burned to death. However not really confirmed by any hard evidence. 

Although sealed off and left to be forgotten, the locals are said to avoid the site of the abandoned mines, even to this day. 

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Top 12 Most Haunted Places In South Korea!

Creatrip: Korea’s Most Haunted Places

경산 코발트광산 학살사건 – 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

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The Haunting on Jeju Island

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After terrible tragedies, stories of ghosts often linger hauntingly at the same place. This is the case of Jeju Island, a place that experienced a horrible massacre the place is still recovering from. 

In Korea, the self-governing Jeju island is probably most known to be a great vacation place with its beautiful coastline and lush green scenery. It also houses the biggest mountain in South Korea, Hallasan. 

But the light and lush place has its dark and horrible past. The Jeju massacre from 1948 to 1949, is one of the horrible memories the island holds when in an anti communist campaign the Korean army massacred a tenth of the Islands population. 

The Jeju Uprising

The Korean peninsula was in an uproar during the Korean war and loyalty to the different regimes were in black and white. The Jeju Uprising was also later known as April 3. Incident (제주 4·3 사건)

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A separatist movement of the communists broke out on the island and the South Korean army struck hard on it right before the outbreak of the Korean War. The government ordered a massacre and although not a definite number has been provided the massacre itself resulted in around 30 000 people dying. That is around 10 % of the Jeju population that were slaughtered in fear of them being for the communists. 

However, the guilt by association sentiment was strong in the Korean army and both innocent and children were killed and harmed during this massacre. And in the aftermath of the massacre several people died by their wounds, starvation or exposure seeing that entire villages were burned to the ground. 

The Haunting Aftermath of the Jeju Massacre

After this horrible tragedy, the islanders claim that the place is haunted by the people that were massacred as they never got peace, justice or even recovered the bodies in some cases. 

Go Wan-soon was one of the survivors of the massacre at just nine years old. Even she remembers the stories of ghosts that the survivors allegedly encountered after the massacre: 

“People said they saw a white skirt, a white top – there were ghosts,” she said. “I could not go to some places, I was so scared.” She told Asian Times in 2018.

Caves and popular hiking spots are said to be places where the ghosts still roam those who were killed. 

Jeju Uprising: Jeju citizens awaiting execution in May 1948.//Source.

Why especially are these places claimed to be haunted? Perhaps the mass grave next to Jeju’s airport can hold the answer as 388 bodies were uncovered in this grave far from everything else as recent as in 2008. 

Secluded places where mass graves of the killed people sometimes come to light even in the later years, showing just how raw and huge the collective trauma of the massacre still are to the locals.

Places like the Saebyeol Oreum Circus are said to be haunted, although perhaps because of its abandoned eeri aura or perhaps because of the massacre itself. 

When tragedy and atrocities such as the Jeju massacre happens, the aftermath of it is often explained through paranormal phenomena. The same can be said of the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine massacre from the same time that also suffers from legends of ghosts and hauntings in its later years. 

One can wonder if it is the dead or the survivors that are not able to move on from the tragedy. 

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8 Haunted Places In South Korea You Didn’t Know Existed

Top 12 Most Haunted Places In South Korea!

Jeju’s Most Chilling Ghost Stories

On Jeju, Korea’s island of ghosts, the dead finally find a voice – Asia Times

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Yeongdeok Haunted House

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Named one of the most haunted houses in South Korea, this house has attracted its fair share of ghost tourists. But is the Yeongdeok Haunted House really haunted by the death of Korean soldiers during the war, or is it simply the decaying look of the house that made the legend?

On a 3 hour KTX ride from Seoul with a high speed train you will find the Yeongdeok haunted house (영덕흉가). Located in Gyeongsang Province, known for its beautiful nature and coastline. The house near the beach has in the later years taken the role as one of the most famous haunted houses in South Korea that are not yet demolished or revamped to something else. 

The ones said to haunt this particular basic building are said to be the student soldiers that lost their lives when almost 800 of them staged a diversion operation at Jangsari beach in Yeongdeok to draw the North Koreans attention away from the well known Battle of Inchon in the Korean War.

Read More: Check out the rest of our ghost stories from Korea

According to locals, around 400 to 700 soldiers lost their lives during this battle and were buried in this area during the Korean War. It is said that while 139 were killed and 92 were wounded, the rest just went missing. 

The house itself was built in October 1980 and supposedly the house is built upon a mass grave of the soldiers that died. Is this true? Some locals claim that no, it isn’t, but then again, the legends uphold the claim and the house has been featured on many lists as Korea’s most haunted.

The Ghost in the Staircase

After the war the Yeongdeok Haunted House, hauntings have been to blame when the owners of the house died in mysterious ways, although no real evidence of any of the owners having actually died has been presented. One variation is that the owner of the house in its earlier days was killed in a car accident and that those buying the house after this died as well. 

In all the legends surrounding the house though it is because of all the people that died during the war here, that it drove the price of the land down and some people saw the opportunity to get it cheap. But then, they didn’t calculate all the souls that came with it. 

The Haunted House: Years without anyone to take care of it has left the Yeongdeok Haunted House on the hill in decay and deterioration, fuelling the haunted house rumours. // Source

In one of the many haunted legends about the house, a young couple once bought the place to turn it into a seafood restaurant as they got it cheap because of the haunted rumors. But not soon after they opened for business strange things started to happen. 

The wife reported spotting a ghost in the staircase, descending from the second floor again and again with the hair hanging down and when she first saw it she is reported to have fainted at the spot by the mere sight of it. It all was too much and they ended up abandoning the place not soon after because of all the incidents that kept occuring in their home. 

The Shamanist Against the Ghosts

A new couple moved into the Yeongdeok Haunted House as the price of the house dropped even further. They were believers of traditional Korean shamanistic beliefs and tried to keep the ghosts at bay with their shamanistic items and rituals. It seems to not have worked as they also moved from the house not soon after. 

This story of shamanism inhabitants has contradicting variations. Some say that they ran away because of the ghosts, some say that they were kicked out because they were squatters, not real owners.

Read More: Check out all our ghost stories from Haunted Houses

Now the hype of the house started to pick up though, and the place attracted ghostbusters and shamans alike to have a look at the house and try to cleanse it as well as getting a few minutes of screentime on TV. 

One shaman that visited the place as a part of a TV show claimed that over ten thousand spirits were present in the house. During this part they supposedly got the hold of recording of voices they didn’t hear when they were on site, although speculations that it has something to do with the radio tower right by the house, is under discussion.

Visitors, or trespassers if you will, complain that a throbbing headache or an intense chill takes hold of them as they explore the abandoned building that is decaying and getting more and more of a haunted look as no one is taking care of the building. It is also rumored that machine equipment is malfunctioning while staying at the place. 

The Ghost of Student Soldiers: The ghosts that are said to be haunting Yeongdeok Haunted House are the dead ones from a battle at Jangsari Beach to lead the attention of North Korea away from Incheon. Here from the movie about the battle: The Battle of Jangsari. // Source

The Truth of the Legend Behind Yeongdeok Haunted House

The truthness to these haunted rumors though can be disputed. What we do know for a fact is that the owners moved to the US. Why? Perhaps not for the paranormal reasons the legend is insisting on. What is a fact though is that the uprooting of the owners led to the neglected buildings starting to deteriorate.

A little footage of the house from around 5 years ago.

The owner, in articles called Mr. Ham is currently residing in the US and is considering demolishing the Yeongdeok Haunted House as it seems to disturb the plans to create a memorial park for those dying in this battle were the supposedly haunting started from. 

So perhaps the same fate of some of the famous abandoned buildings with a haunting reputation will get another addition to the list when this house also gets flattened to the earth, soon to be forgotten.

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8 Haunted Places In South Korea You Didn’t Know Existed

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The most haunted house in Korea – Captain and Clark

전국 3대 흉가 선정, 영덕 ‘귀신 나오는 집’ 헐린다

귀신 나온다는 ‘한국 3대 흉가’는 조작됐다 – 시사저널