A haenyeo diver is the only Korean among FAO's 100 Women Heroes in agrifood systems

15 October 2026

For the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has honoured a list it calls the 100 Women Heroes, women working in farming, fishing and rural life.
About 600 women were nominated, and the only Korean on the final list is Sung Hee-jung, aged 74.
She heads the Guryongpo Fishing Village Cooperative and the Gyeongbuk Haenyeo Association in North Gyeongsang Province.
Haenyeo are Korea's women sea divers; about 1,500 of them moved from Jeju to Guryongpo in the 1960s.
The award ceremony was held at FAO headquarters in Rome on 15 October.
The culture of Jeju's haenyeo was inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2016.