Economics
Plastic Surgery Boom Lures South Korea’s Overworked Doctors
Foreigners are flocking to Seoul for cosmetic procedures even as hospitals turn away locals.
Julie Miller undergoing a skin treatment in Seoul.
Photographer: Woohae Cho/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
On a brisk October morning, Julie Miller hops out of a cab at a 16-story building packed with cosmetic surgery practices in Seoul’s posh Gangnam district. The 46-year-old has traveled from New Jersey for a five-day visit, intending to check out Seoul’s royal palaces and the heavily fortified border with North Korea–and to shed a few years.
Entering the Renovo Skin Clinic, she’s offered coffee and pastries by a Korean woman speaking fluent English. Renovo’s manager soon guides her to a domed scanner where her face is assessed for oiliness, elasticity, wrinkles, pores, sunspots and more.