Disabled slaves tell of 'living hell' on remote South Korean salt farms
Investigation reveals harsh and hopeless 'living hell' of salt farm workers on remote island a world away from the glitz and glamour of Seoul
He ran the first chance he had.
The sun beat down on the sea-fed fields where Kim Seong-baek was forced to work without pay, day after 18-hour day mining the big salt crystals that blossomed in the mud around him.
Half blind and in rags, Kim grabbed another slave, and the two disabled men headed for the coast.
Far from the glittering capital of Seoul, they were now hunted men on the remote island where the enslavement of disabled salt farm workers is an open secret.
"It was a living hell," Kim said in a recent series of interviews whose details were corroborated by court records and lawyers, police and government officials.
Lost, they wandered past asphalt-black salt fields sparkling with a patina of thin white crust. They could feel the islanders inspecting them.
Near a grocery, the store owner's son rounded them up and called their boss, who beat Kim with a rake and sent him back to the salt fields.
Slavery thrives on rural islands off South Korea's rugged southwest coast, nurtured by a long history of exploitation and the demands of trying to squeeze a living from the sea.
Two-thirds of South Korea's sea salt is produced at 850 salt farms on dozens of islands in Sinan County, including Sinui island, where half the 2,200 residents work in the industry.
Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged. Kim's case prompted a government probe of thousands of farms and disabled facilities that found more than 100 workers who'd received no, or scant, pay.
Yet little has changed, according to a months-long investigation by the Associated Press based on court and police documents and interviews with freed slaves, farmers and villagers.
Although 50 island farm owners and regional job brokers were indicted, no local police or officials will face punishment.
Soon after the national investigation, activists and police found another 63 unpaid or underpaid workers on the islands, three-quarters of whom were mentally disabled.
Kim's former boss, Hong Jeong-gi, is set to appeal a three-and-a-half year prison sentence next week.
The night of July 4, 2012, Kim - homeless for a decade - was sleeping in a Seoul train station when a stranger offered him a place to stay and a job.
Hours later, he stood on a Sinui island salt farm. Hong had paid an illegal job agent the equivalent of about US$700 for his new worker, court records reveal.
The beatings began the first day on the farm for Kim, who's visually disabled and described in court documents as having the social awareness of a 12-year-old.
"Each time I tried to ask him something, his punch came first," Kim said
Only a week after his first escape was thwarted, Kim began to plan another.
He and the other slave, Chae Min-sik, again tried to find their way to a port. But the grocery owner's son, identified only as Yoon, rounded them up again.
After another beating, it was back to work.
Despite his fear, Kim ran again at the end of the month. Again, Yoon captured them.
Furious, the owner said that if Kim ran again, he'd get a knife in the stomach. Hong beat Kim so badly he broke Kim's glasses. He worked Kim so hard the slave was too tired to think about escape.
The number of slaves is difficult to determine because of the transient work, the remoteness of the farms and the closeness of the island communities. Social workers believe many have yet to be found, and investigations have so far been inadequate.
"If the recent investigation was done properly, then pretty much everyone on the island should've been taken to the police station and charged," said activist Kim Kang-won. "The whole village knew about it."
Kim found freedom. Now living in Seoul, he settled with Hong for US$35,000 (HK$271,000) in unpaid wages. But he feels disgusted when he sees salt, saying: "Just thinking about it makes me grind my teeth."
