26-Year-Old Already a 3rd-Year Village Chief... Average Age 68 Village Guardians Draw Attention

[Jeonnam Wando-gun Yongam-ri Village Chief Kim Yusol]

Moved to Seoul after high school to pursue dreams... Felt "money became the dream," then visited hometown

Fell in love with Wando's hidden beauty... Received village chief offer while run

A small village located at the southernmost tip of South Korea, where the blue sea stretches endlessly. In Yongan-ri, Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do, there is a young village chief responsible for about 60 elderly residents. Although people in rural areas call those in their 50s and 60s "youth," he is much younger than that. In the elders' terms, he is an "aegi" (baby).

The average age of Yongan-ri residents is 68. However, the village chief who takes care of all the village affairs and acts as the hands and feet of the elders is 26 years old. Moreover, he is already in his third year as the village chief.

Kim Yusol (26), the village chief, is having a conversation with the village elders at the Yongan-ri senior center in Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do on the afternoon of the 7th.
[Photo by Min Hyunki]

Mr. Kim Yusol is responsible for everything from "sending text messages on behalf of the elders," "cutting the weeds in front of houses," to handling major administrative tasks with Wando-gun.

This year marks his second reappointment. When he first became village chief in 2022, he also earned the title of South Korea’s youngest village chief. He is not a lifelong local who has never left Wando; Kim graduated from high school in Wando and then left for Seoul to pursue his dream of becoming a designer.

At that time, unlike in Wando where everyone recognized him just by stepping outside his house, he liked Seoul because no one knew him there, and he was determined to endure hardships with the mindset of dying in Seoul no matter what.

While working as a designer at a small-to-medium enterprise, one day he suddenly felt as if he had been hit hard on the head with a hammer. He realized that his immediate dream had become "to transfer to a company that pays even a little more."

When he returned to his hometown Yongan-ri after several years, only four teenagers, three people in their twenties, and two in their thirties remained, and the village had aged with the youngest person at the senior center being 66 years old. Seeing that all the young people he had grown up with in Wando had left, Kim started a youth community project to gather young people and lead proactive activities.

Then, around January 2022, before the village chief election, the former chief suggested that he consider becoming the village chief. There was one other candidate besides Kim Yusol, but when the elders heard Kim was running, they said, "I’m too weak to do it now. Since a young person wants to do it, we should all support him," and rather encouraged him.

Thus, 24-year-old Kim became South Korea’s youngest village chief. Kim’s duties start the moment he wakes up in the morning. He has a mountain of things to pay attention to, such as whether the weeds in the village have grown too much, whether de-icing agents have been properly spread in winter to prevent elders from falling, and whether the streetlights work well in the evening.

In addition, all the administrative tasks that need to be handled with Wando-gun are also Kim’s responsibility. He spends most of his day at the senior center to listen to the elders’ complaints and difficulties.

Until last year, Kim received a monthly salary of 300,000 won, which was increased to 400,000 won this year. Between the photo studio, the youth community, and being the village chief, he lives a life that would require two bodies to manage. The reason he can do all this is because of his "sense of responsibility."

As the saying goes, "Sincerity gets through." The elders know Kim’s sincerity very well and place strong trust in him. Ms. Kim Yoonja (77) said, "My cellphone broke, and since all my children and grandchildren live far away, I didn’t know how to fix it and was struggling. But the young village chief touched it a few times, and it was like new again," adding, "This is only possible because the village chief is young."

Ms. Kang Bongsim (79) expressed her gratitude, saying, "Nowadays, administrative tasks have to be done using computers or kiosk-like machines, and every time, (Kim) always goes with me, so I feel so reassured."

Village chief Kim Yusol said, "One day, an elder opened the window of their house with a tree branch and suddenly pushed a black plastic bag inside, saying, 'Village chief, eat this.' I feel the warm love of the elders all at once," adding, "My dream is to create a legacy where the elders look back someday and say, 'Village chief Kim did at least that well.' As long as the elders allow it, I want to continue serving as village chief for a long time."