Housing experts project that if the two Koreas reunify, an additional 730-thousand homes would be needed to accommodate North Koreans seeking jobs in the South.

A forum in May hosted by the Korean Housing Association estimated that about three million, or 13 percent, of the North Korean population would move to the South in a unified Korea.

The forum noted that the South’s labor shortages due to its shrinking population would encourage such a migration.

Therefore, participants predicted that housing shortages would become one of the most serious issues resulting from a population shift away from the North.