---
node: spot_sokcho_abai_village
type: spot
slug: abai_village
destination: dest_sokcho
title: "Abai Village"
lead: "Abai Village is a sandspit settlement in Sokcho founded by refugees from Hamgyong province who fled south in the winter of 1950 and could not go back. It is reached by a hand-pulled ferry across the channel."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_sokcho_abai_village.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaetbae_20221209_005.jpg"
image_author: "Mobius6"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The refugees expected to return within weeks; the village of shacks they built became permanent when the border closed, and abai is a northern dialect word for an older man. The food is northern: ojingeo sundae, squid stuffed with noodles and vegetables, and hamheung naengmyeon with sweet potato starch noodles. The ferry, the gaetbae, is a flat barge pulled across sixty metres of water by passengers hauling on a cable — the last of its kind in Korea.

## Highlights

Pull the ferry yourself; that is what the hooks along the rail are for, and the fare is a few hundred won. Eat ojingeo sundae in the market lane rather than at the tourist restaurants on the waterfront. The village was the setting of a 2000s television drama, which is why it is signposted and why some of the murals exist.