A Single Newspaper at Gohan Station
One night in 2001, at Gohan Station in Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do.
A man was trying to sleep in a corner of the station, covered by a single sheet of newspaper.
He didn't have a single coin in his pocket. It had been three days since he last ate. He was hungry, but he couldn't bring himself to ask anyone for help.
Just a few years prior, he was a man who traveled the world's oceans, earning tens of millions of won a month.
He was a 'Matros' (sailor) who enjoyed alcohol, women, and casinos in South America, Australia, Europe, Africa, and countless ports across Southeast Asia. He was a boatswain who commanded crews on hundred-thousand-ton oil tankers.
Yet, that night, all he had left was a sheet of newspaper.
Kang Man-jin (pseudonym, 69).
A native of Busan, he knew better than anyone how he had fallen to such a state.
It was because of the Kangwon Land Casino.
"Back then, I really didn't have a penny. I even went three days without eating. But I couldn't bring myself to ask others for money."
Even as he recounted sleeping under a newspaper at Gohan Station, he tried to maintain a composed expression.
Around the casino, there were people known as 'beggars' who survived by borrowing from or begging others. But he insisted he could never live like that.
"No matter how poorly I live, I can't do things that harm others. My pride wouldn't allow it."
Perhaps that pride was stronger than three days of hunger.
He remembered the cold of that night, but he couldn't actually remember how much he had lost at the casino.
That was because there were simply too many days when he lost money.
◇ The Most Dangerous Boatswain in the World
He first boarded a ship in the mid-1970s, around the age of nineteen.
At the time, being an ocean-going sailor in Korea was a special job that allowed one to earn good money. Sailors bringing in foreign currency often earned more than the average office worker on land.
Kang primarily worked on oil tankers and chemical tankers, which were highly dangerous and required specialized expertise even among cargo ships.
He started on ships of a few thousand tons and eventually worked his way up to hundred-thousand-ton oil tankers.
As he gained experience, he rose to the position of boatswain.
The boatswain was not just a foreman directing the crew.
Loading and unloading cargo on an oil tanker meant that a single small mistake could lead to a major disaster.
He had to precisely manage which tank to load crude oil into and which pipe to transfer aviation fuel or other petroleum products through.
"Do you know how many types of oil there are? If you connect one tank incorrectly, it's a catastrophe. A boatswain has to stay sharp."
He explained that when crude oil is refined and processed, it creates not only fuel but also raw materials for plastics and synthetic fibers.
When the conversation returned to ships, his voice changed.
It was as if the temperament of a boatswain who once commanded dozens of crew members in rough work was coming back to life.
"You can't be sloppy on a ship. If you don't understand instructions or can't do the job properly, you put other people's lives at risk."
According to him, the world of sailors at the time had a hierarchy as strict as the military.
Relationships between seniors and juniors were clear.
However, even amidst the harsh discipline, there was a camaraderie where they helped each other.
Voyages across the Pacific and Indian Oceans took at least several months.
It could take at least two and a half months to leave Busan Port, load oil in South America, visit Asian ports, and return home.
Endless sea, seasickness, fatigue, and the risk of accidents.
It was the money that made him endure all that hardship.
But he never imagined that the very money would become the seed of his life's collapse.
◇ "I Even Earned 50 Million Won a Month"
In the late 1980s, Kang's life reached its peak.
He remembered the Roh Tae-woo administration era with particular clarity.
He recalls that on certain overseas routes at the time, one could earn a lot of money through various transactions outside of official wages or salaries.
He mentioned being involved in trades where they would transport oil with small 3,500 to 5,000-ton tankers and barter for other goods.
"We'd carry oil and trade it for sesame seeds. Money just rolled in back then."
He claimed he earned 30 to 40 million won a month at the time, sometimes as much as 50 million won.
While this likely included both salary and side-deal profits, the exact details cannot be verified.
In his memory, the shipping industry back then was a world with more unofficial money transactions than today.
He said people even paid brokers to get on better ships or transfer to better positions.
"You needed money to get on a big ship. The broker would handle everything in between."
He said there was a large income gap between captains and boatswains, and earnings varied wildly depending on the ship and the route.
The money-making he talks about was a world where legal salaries and illicit deals were mixed.
He recalled hearing stories of drug or gold smuggling at ports back then. However, he did not say he participated in such crimes.
What is clear is that he was confident in his ability to make money.
"If I had just saved the money back then, I'd be a very rich man now."
A bitter smile spread across his lips.
But for Kang Man-jin at the time, saving was a story from a distant land.
The moment he stepped off the ship, another world was waiting for him.
◇ Australian Nights, Music Echoing in the Cabin
A port in Australia.
He says that after a long voyage, when the ship docked, young men and women met on land would sometimes come aboard.
Whiskey and soju were placed in the cabins.
Music played, and parties broke out.
Kang burst into laughter as he reminisced about those days.
"Back then, young foreign women would come to the ship to hang out. We'd drink and dance together, and sometimes they'd stay the night."
It was a scene hard to imagine today, given the tightened port security and maritime safety regulations.
According to Kang's recollections, port access control was looser in some ports at the time, and drinking and entertainment among sailors were frequent.
He did not hide his relationships with women he met in various countries.
He even mentioned having been treated for sexually transmitted diseases in the process.
"When I was young, I wasn't afraid of anything. I earned good money, met women, and did everything I wanted to do."
His words still carried the bravado of a man who once traveled the world as if it were his own backyard.
"There probably isn't a country with a port that I haven't been to. I've been to hundreds of places."
For him, the sea was his workplace, but the ports were his liberation zone.
Sailors who felt trapped for months would spend money like water once they hit land.
They spent nights in bars, shared love with strangers, and bet large sums in casinos.
On the ship, they risked their lives to earn money.
At the ports, they acted like people living just to spend that money.
And the casino, which he first stepped into around the age of twenty-one, began to slowly swallow his life.
◇ The Casino Trap: "If I Lose, I'll Just Go Back to Sea"
At first, it was simple curiosity.
Playing games at a casino in a strange port felt like a special kind of fun.
The bright lights of the casino, the chips piled on the table, and the thrill of the moment when victory or defeat was decided made him forget the tension built up from long voyages.
However, as time passed, the betting amounts grew larger.
If he won once, he bet even more.
If he lost, he held on to try and win back his principal.
The result was usually the same.
The money he earned after months of hardship on the ship disappeared in the casino.
Yet, Kang wasn't overly worried.
"Back then, if I ran out of money, I just had to go back to sea. I'd go out for a few months, and I'd have money again."
That very thought was the problem.
The confidence that he could earn it back dulled his fear of loss.
Even if he lost money at the casino, there was no reason to change his lifestyle.
He just had to board another ship.
Ten, twenty years passed like that.
The purpose of his sailing the world's oceans had changed at some point.
He wasn't sailing to make a living; he was living to go back to sea to cover the money he lost in the casino.
For the sailor, the sea was no longer a place of dreams and romance.
It had become a workplace to fund his casino habits.
◇ "Pack Your Bags and Get Out!"
October 28, 2000.
Kangwon Land's small casino opened in Gohan-eup, Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do.
It was a major turning point in Kang's life.
Around that time, he had wrapped up his long career as a boatswain and began visiting Kangwon Land.
He could enjoy the casino without traveling to ports around the world.
However, as the casino got closer, his family drifted further away.
Early December 2000.
After he returned from a trip to Kangwon Land, his wife's pent-up anger exploded.
"I can't take it anymore. Pack your bags and get out right now!"
That was the final ultimatum from his wife that Kang remembers.
He left home.
And so, the sailor from Busan left his family behind and moved his life to Gohan, near Kangwon Land.
A man who had spent his life drifting through the world's ports finally settled in one place, but it wasn't the home where his family was waiting.
It was an abandoned mining village with a casino.
From then on, his relationship with his family was effectively severed.
Though he was once a breadwinner who earned more money than anyone else, he had no assets left to leave for his wife and children.
When he made money, he headed to the casino; when he ran out, he looked for work again.
As time passed, he even lost the justification to return to his family.
"I was kicked out of the house because of the casino. Who can I blame?"
He didn't shift the blame for his mistakes onto others.
But acknowledging his fault and quitting the casino were two completely different things.
◇ Penniless Even After Earning 100 Million Won
Even after moving to Gohan, Kang couldn't completely cut ties with the sea.
There were places that needed a boatswain with long experience.
Even after long-term boarding became difficult, he continued to work through short-term boarding and temporary jobs.
According to his recollections, he sailed until around 2020.
He said there were times even in his later years when he earned about 100 million won a year.
The problem was what happened after he got the money.
As soon as the money he earned with sweat hit his bank account, Kangwon Land would flash before his eyes.
In the casino, it felt like he could win back today's losses tomorrow.
It felt like one big win would make up for decades of failure.
However, when he walked out after the game, his bank account was empty again.
Among the long-term residents he watched in Gohan, some lost money and begged from those around them.
Kang said he helped them when he had some to spare.
But when he himself became destitute, there was no one to reach out to him.
He confessed that he also suffered financial losses in his relationships with women.
He would meet them because he was lonely, only to lose money repeatedly.
At this point, what was hardest for him to endure was not poverty, but loneliness.
He knew how to command people on a deck crowded with sailors, but on land, he was clumsy at reading people's hearts and maintaining relationships.
"I only rode ships my whole life. My social life is a failing grade."
That was the belated self-assessment of a man who had drifted between land and sea for decades.
After his life in Gohan began, a time of unbearable hardship came for Kang.
His family was gone, and he had no money.
He didn't know how much more he could earn in the future.
His body was aging, but the money lost in the casino didn't return.
He confessed that he once even thought about taking his own life.
To him, the world felt like a place with nothing left to expect.
But one day, he noticed young people working hard.
People who worked silently even if they didn't earn much money.
People who didn't give up day by day, even in difficult circumstances.
Seeing them, he said he rethought his own situation.
He had endured countless dangers on the world's oceans his whole life; he couldn't give up on life just because he lost money.
He decided to live.
That decision didn't solve his gambling problem overnight.
Quitting the casino was still difficult.
But at least he turned away from the thought of ending his life.
Afterward, he sought out new jobs on land.
He dabbled in real estate brokerage and worked on panel installation at construction sites.
A man who had commanded countless sailors as a boatswain was now working as a day laborer at a construction site.
But unexpectedly, he said he felt at ease during those days.
"Construction work is hard on the body, but there's no stress. You just do what you're told."
When he was managing pipes and tanks on a massive oil tanker, he couldn't let his guard down for a single moment.
On the other hand, at a construction site, once the day's work was done, it was over.
He realized too late that time spent working with peace of mind was more valuable than earning big money.
Although he lived apart from his family for a long time, the bond of blood wasn't completely erased.
Not long ago, Kang contacted his sister and asked to borrow 10 million won.
Perhaps she was the family he wanted to lean on one last time.
But the answer was a refusal.
His sister must have had her own circumstances, and she might have found it hard to trust a brother who had been losing money for so long.
Kang didn't explain the specific reason.
He just said briefly,
"She refused. So I knew. What can't be, can't be."
He said he decided not to talk about money with his family anymore.
He said he didn't want to ask friends, his younger brother, or close acquaintances for help either.
More painful than the memory of starving because he had no money was his own situation of having to ask someone to lend him money.
He let out a long sigh, remembering the days when he earned a lot of money.
It was a retirement he couldn't have even imagined in his prime when he traveled the world's oceans.
All that was left for him was the fact that he couldn't blame anyone.
Autumn 2026.
Kang still lives in Gohan-eup, Jeongseon-gun.
His residence is an old company house where Samtan miners lived long ago.
For a man who commanded the decks of hundred-thousand-ton oil tankers in his youth, his living space is now modest.
But when the subject of this place came up, his face brightened.
"This place is so good. It's cool even in summer, the air is clean, and it's great to live in."
He also has a small vegetable garden.
A plot of about 16 square meters.
He said that the time he spends growing vegetables there is his happiest time these days.
He once crossed the ocean for over two months to earn big money.
When he arrived at a port, he drank, met women, and went to the casino.
No matter which country he went to, what he chased was money and stimulating pleasure.
But now it's different.
He said he likes the clean air of Gohan and the quiet mountain life.
He also has a pension that supports his retirement.
"If I just don't go to the casino often, the pension is enough to live on. I don't need much money."
He still hasn't completely broken free from the casino.
Kangwon Land is nearby, and habits ingrained over decades don't disappear easily.
But he knew what he needed.
It wasn't earning more money.
It was not bringing money to the casino.
Kang will be seventy next year.
He has no driver's license and no decent assets.
He hasn't been able to restore his relationship with his family either.
But he still has time left.
The sailor who fought against rough waves on the world's oceans spent his life sailing to earn money.
He poured the money he earned that way into alcohol, women, and the casino.
When he was young, if he lost money, he could earn it back, but in his old age, he couldn't recover the lost years.
The most important principle he learned at sea was that to protect the lives of the crew, they must help each other and follow the rules.
Yet, he failed to protect his own life.
Concluding the interview, I asked him what his happiest moment is right now.
He didn't talk about the large sums of money from his youth.
It wasn't about the women he met in foreign ports either.
He talked about his 16-square-meter garden and the clean air of Gohan.
The place he said was most comfortable, after searching countless ports around the world for decades, was unexpectedly an abandoned mining village next to a casino.
For Kang, the casino is still a dangerous temptation.
He can't say that the temptation has completely disappeared.
But now he knows.
A fact he didn't realize even in the days when he rode ships to earn money, or the days when he struggled to win back the money he lost in the casino.
The fact that happiness depends not on how much money you earn, but on how much of what you have you can protect.
The old sailor who spent the night covered by a single newspaper at Gohan Station.
Kang Man-jin, who once commanded the world's oceans, is now continuing his final voyage in a small vegetable garden.
The roughest waves in his life were not in the ocean, but in the casino.
