How South Korea’s plastic surgery craze is costing lives

In South Korea the ideal ‘look’ is that of a living doll. Tiny, v-shaped jaws, large eyes with double eyelids and carefully dimpled smiles are all the rage. But the plastic surgery obsession is now costing lives.

TO GO WITH Health-SKorea-cosmetic-surgery,FEATURE by Jung Ha-Won This picture taken on May 22, 2013 shows a South Korean woman walking past a street billboard advertising double-jaw surgery at a subway station in Seoul. South Korea's obsession with plastic surgery is moving on from standard eye and nose jobs to embrace a radical surgical procedure that requires months of often painful recovery. AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE Picture: Afp

Seoul has become the new poster city for a growing Korean obsession to look perfect.

It’s a place where plastic surgery clinics line the road all the way to the horizon line and business is booming.

In South Korea the ideal ‘look’ is that of a living doll. Tiny, v-shaped jaws, large eyes with double eyelids and carefully dimpled smiles are all the rage.

But the quest for beauty and profits is putting lives at risk.

In the feature video below, we meet So Yi Yoon, who has been in a waking nightmare since her ‘living doll’ makeover - including not being able to close one of her eyes.

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