Housing has become the primary obstacle preventing young people from getting married, not just in South Korea, but across the border in North Korea as well. The difficulty of securing a home is causing an increasing number of young North Koreans to abandon their marriage plans entirely.
“Discharged soldiers in Chongpyong county are constructing log cabins on the town’s outskirts as they prepare to marry early next year,” a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently. “It’s not much to look at, but at least it’s something—plenty of people are putting off marriage because they don’t have any housing at all.”
These log cabins barely qualify as proper homes. They’re little better than makeshift shacks, cramped enough that two newlyweds can barely fit inside. For would-be grooms who can’t even manage this basic shelter, marriage becomes virtually impossible.
The cabins are typically built far from town centers, creating an extremely inconvenient living situation for young couples trying to start their lives together.
In North Korea, the government officially owns all land and housing, which means married couples must wait for their workplace or local people’s committee to assign them a home. But when officials can’t allocate housing due to overwhelming demand, North Koreans are left to fend for themselves.
Wealthy parents sometimes arrange housing for their children’s weddings, but this remains fairly uncommon. Young people without financial resources have little hope of securing their own place and often end up living with their parents even after marriage.
As North Koreans frequently say, “A family cannot thrive without a home”—a saying that reflects the widespread understanding of how difficult it is to raise a family without decent housing.
Marriage delayed, dreams deferred
These housing challenges have pushed the average marriage age significantly higher. In Chongpyong county, women now typically marry around age 27 and men around 30. This represents a notable shift from previous generations, when both men and women usually wed in their mid-twenties.
“Men in this area consider it shameful not to marry by age 30, but they’re also very conscious of public opinion and feel they must delay marriage if they can’t secure a home first,” the source explained.
A growing divide has emerged between urban and rural wedding practices. Affluent urban families often host elaborate wedding ceremonies complete with professional videography. Meanwhile, financially struggling rural youth commonly skip the ceremony entirely, moving in together as soon as they can find any form of housing.
“What people say nowadays is that having your own house matters more than any wedding ceremony,” the source noted. “A comfortable home where you can truly relax—that’s the greatest wedding gift of all. The lack of one is what’s keeping so many young people from getting married.”
