MEET Shin Hyomyung, the Peter Pan of South Korea who’s yet to reach puberty despite hitting the grand of age of 26.

    If you had to guess, with his high voice and chubby cheeks, you wouldn’t think he was a day older than 12.

    But the identity card, which Shin has to produce extremely often, says he was born in 1989, making him 26 this year.

    Shin recently took part in a local TV program which filmed him getting dressed up to paint the town red, downing shots of local “firewater” soju, dancing in a club, where one woman could not resist a squeeze on his cheeks.

    At home he was filmed in his bedroom, where he has a poster of Hollywood babe Scarlett Johansson, talking about his wish for a beautiful girlfriend.

    During the show, he underwent a makeover, but they were not that successful at making him look any older.

    He then had a cafe date with an attractive young woman who could not believe his age.

    The www.KoreaBoo.com pop culture website said he suffers from a rare condition it called the “Highlander Syndrome” which it said causes him to age very slowly, but this has not been recognized by the medical world.

    Photos from his childhood shown on the program show him appear to develop normally until he entered his teens, where his growth seems to have slowed to almost a halt.

    He claims his body has not undergone puberty like his peers, and retains a baby face with full cheeks and hairless soft skin.

    But other than this he claims to be in good health despite the apparent stunted ageing.

    (SD-Agencies)