Ko So-young Stunned by Gold Prices at Namdaemun Market

Actress Ko So-young was caught off guard by how expensive gold has become. She shared the moment in a new video on her YouTube channel, posted on Oct. 20.

The video, titled "What Great-Value Earrings Did Jewelry CEO Ko So-young Find at Namdaemun?" (Jueolli CEO Go So-yeong-i Namdaemun-eseo Deuktemhan Gaseongbijjang Gwigeori-neun?), follows Ko as she browses jewelry at Seoul's Namdaemun Market.

At one shop, Ko looked at a dol ring. It's a small gold ring that Koreans traditionally give a baby on their first birthday. She asked the price and was surprised to hear 710,000 won.

"It's gone up a lot," she said.

She then picked out a pair of earrings with a blue stone and held them up to her ear. But when the seller said they cost 1.3 million won, she decided against buying them. "That's expensive," she said.

Ko remembered when the rings cost far less. "I think a dol ring used to be something like 40,000 won," she said. "Back in my day, around when I was in college, there was a time like that."

Asked whether she still has her children's dol rings, Ko said she does. "I have this many," she said. "There's a turtle, and there's a horse, too. I'm keeping them safe."

Ko checked out earrings at another store as well. The prices were higher than she expected, and she moved on without buying anything.

Ko married actor Jang Dong-gun in 2010. The couple has a son and a daughter.

For a star who runs her own jewelry business, the trip ended with nothing in her bag. It was a small moment. It still showed how a gift Korean families have long given their babies now costs many times what it did when Ko was in college.