Ugh, that's horrible.

Last month I talked a little bit about mortality, reminding us that, unfortunately, foreigners outside of a social circle or those under the employ of careless bosses might became ill or die at home without anyone noticing for quite some time. What put me on that topic was a story in the Joongang Ilbo about two young children left alone in an apartment with their dead mother for four days. This morning the Korea Times has one even more disturbing. A man was found eleven months after hanging himself in his apartment; the new owner found him in July and thought he was a mannequin, and left him there. He came back in August and came to the same conclusion.

It was not until Monday that Kim found out what the ``mannequin'' was: Kim's girlfriend who came to help him clean the house said that it looked like a human body, and Kim touched it, learning that she was right.

``Neighbors did not know Sohn was dead, because the body did not give out a bad smell as it was dried up in the well-ventilated kitchen. He had severed ties with his family and lived alone, so no one tried to contact him over the last 11 months,'' the officer said.