[4] Restaurants serve Koryo-saram cuisine such as morkovcha and Russosphere dishes such as shashlik, plov, and somsa.

They acquired the land for the farm for free, from a community credit cooperative called Saemaul.

She stayed illegally after her travel visa had expired,[3] although she eventually acquired legal residence status in June 2003.

This led to the Gwangju government creating legal frameworks to assist the Koryo-saram residents.

[9] Shin opened a charitable collective for the community in 2015, that offers assistance with visa issues, advocacy for worker's rights, and translation.

They generally work in low-paying, manual labor fields, and are subject to workplace discrimination.

Hundreds of refugees, mostly women and children, arrived in the community, due to the encouragement and financial support of the residents.

[12] The shelter maintained a requirement that occupants had to vacate the premises as soon as they received their first paycheck, in order to make room for other refugees.

[15] It was reported in February 2023 that they temporarily halted efforts to take in more people due to a lack of funds.

[1] Many Korean Ukrainians reportedly hope to stay in South Korea for the long term, as their former homes in Ukraine had been completely destroyed.

[1][10] In February 2024, it was reported that around 30 of the initial refugees had returned to Ukraine, and that a significant majority of the remainees wished to stay in South Korea for the long term.