BBC | H Jong-sun/D Surya
In April 1981, a letter arrived at the office of then-Prime Minister Nam Duck-woo. The letter, handwritten by President Chun Doo-Hwan, a former general who had seized power through a military coup a year earlier, ordered the authorities to “crack down on begging and take protective measures for vagrants”. Under the ordinance which allowed arbitrary detention of vagrants, social welfare centres were set up and buses with signs that read “Vagrants’ Transport Vehicle” began to appear in large cities like Busan.