Photo : YONHAP News
The last remaining resident of South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo has died, leaving the island with no official residents.
Ulleung County of North Gyeongsang Province, which has jurisdiction over Dokdo, said Kim Shin-yeol passed away last Monday at the age of 88.
Kim had become the last resident of the island after her husband, Kim Sung-do, who was known as the “guardian of Dokdo,” died on October 21, 2018, at the age of 79.
The couple settled in Dokdo in the late 1960s and guarded the islets while fishing for a living.
They demonstrated South Korea’s effective control over the islets by casting absentee ballots in every election.
Currently, some 30 people live on Dokdo as stationed coast guards, security officers and employees of Ulleung County, but none of them are registered residents.