Every minute in South Korea, the debt owed by households and self-employed people rises by US$129 thousand dollars. Every 12 minutes, a Korean is declared bankrupt. Ordinary households now owe some 1.8 times their disposable income.

The country's 3 million mom and pop stores are taking out risky high-interest rate loans, and even its high school students are borrowing from loan sharks.

What are the deeper reasons behind South Korea's household debt crisis, and can this spiral of debt be stopped? 

From the series Undercover Asia