Seoul heatwave exposes air-con divide in Gangnam

A severe heatwave in Seoul's affluent Gangnam district is exposing a divide between residents with air-conditioned homes and people in nearby Guryong Village, one of the capital's last shanty towns.

Officials say Guryong Village has about 160 households. Residents there described headaches, stifling indoor heat and limited access to air conditioning or reliable electricity as outside temperatures rose as high as 38C.

South Korea has been hit by a run of extreme heat, with new national temperature records set three times in the past week and a peak of 42.5C on Sunday. Seoul was under a severe heatwave warning Tuesday for the first time since the new category was introduced this year.

Local authorities have converted a community centre into an emergency heat shelter and distributed 67 million won worth of cooling appliances to vulnerable households in Gangnam. The summer temperature death toll reached 16 on Sunday, and the weather agency warned Tuesday of “life-threatening heat”.

In Gangnam, homes near Guryong Village sell for up to 5.4 billion won, or $3.7 million. In Guryong, residents live in makeshift wood and tarpaulin homes among accumulated refuse.

One Guryong resident, identified by her surname Jeong, said she could not afford to cool the one-room home she shares with her husband and disabled daughter. Another resident, 87-year-old Ko Jae-ok, said handheld battery fans discarded by wealthier Seoul residents gave little relief.

Baek Su-hyun, 65, said that when it is 35C outside, it is over 40C inside. He said residents lie outside in the shade because they cannot stay indoors.

Official data cited in the story showed that in 2025 the richest 20% of South Korea's population held average net assets 45 times those of the poorest 20%.

Vladimir Tikhonov, a Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, said Guryong symbolised the alienation of South Korea's urban poor and that lack of air conditioning put residents' health in grave, possibly deadly, danger.

Scientists say human-made climate change is making volatile weather events more intense and frequent.