Story highlights About half of South Korea's elderly live in relative poverty, development organization says

The old social structure, which saw children looking after their parents, has broken down

Last year, the government added a "basic pension" but still only provides under $200 per month

Seoul (CNN) On a Saturday morning in South Korea's capital, Seoul, a line forms near a city underpass.

It's filled with homeless elderly people, who wait for Pastor Choi Seong-Won to set up his weekly mobile soup kitchen.

Choi has been running this service for the past 18 years, providing hot lunches to people who are part of a generation that helped rebuild the country's economy after the Korean War, but now cannot afford to feed themselves.

About half of the country's elderly live in relative poverty, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"(Part of) the reason behind the growing rate of elderly poverty is the more than two years of serious economic crisis in Korea, along with the global economic downturn," Choi says. "Wealthy people will be fine no matter the situation, but people going through economic struggles say now is a really difficult time."

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