November 7th 2022

South Korean miners trapped 625 feet underground survived on coffee for 9 days

by New York Post

Two South Korean miners have miraculously escaped unharmed from being trapped 625 feet underground for nine days — surviving with nothing to eat but powdered coffee.

The pair — ages 62 and 56 and both surnamed Park — were finally rescued Friday after being trapped for 211 hours after a zinc mine in Bonghwa collapsed on them on Oct. 26.

President Yoon Suk-yeol hailed their rescue as “truly miraculous.” 

Doctors revealed at a press conference that it was even more amazing given that the pair had been trapped without food or water.

“I heard they had 30 sticks of instant powdered coffee at first and ate them … instead of meals,” said Bang Jong-hyo, the doctor treating the pair, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

“I think that helped a lot,” the Andong Hospital doctor said.

“The miners also said they subsisted by drinking water falling from the ceiling after the first three days.”

Rescuers said the miners — who barely knew each other — had used plastic to build a makeshift tent and made a fire inside the cold tunnel.

Jong-hyo said the miners would not have survived had it taken even three or four more days to free them. Instead, he marveled, they are doing so well that they will likely be “discharged in days.”

“They are in quick recovery, mentally and physically. I bet they were in good physical state before,” the doctor said.

The elder of the pair, Park Jeong-ha, told the Korea Times that he fell to his knees crying when colleagues finally broke through and rescued them — insisting he knew they would never abandon him.

“We miners have nothing, we are just a bunch of poor men with nothing to lose,” he said. “We may smell bad but we are incredibly resilient and watch our friends’ backs. That gave me hope for the rescue.”

Still, now he is out, he is “troubled with nightmares,” he told Yonhap.

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