SINUI ISLAND, South Korea He ran the first chance he got. <\/p>\n
The summer sun beat down on the shallow, 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 men both disabled headed for the coast. <\/p>\n
Far from Seoul, the glittering steel-and-glass capital of one of Asia's richest countries, they were now hunted men on this tiny, remote island where the enslavement of disabled salt farm workers is an open secret. <\/p>\n
\"It was a living hell,\" Kim said. \"I thought my life was over.\" <\/p>\n
Lost, they wandered past asphalt-black salt fields sparkling with a patina of thin white crust. They could feel the islanders they passed watching them. Everyone knew who belonged and who didn't. <\/p>\n
Near a grocery, the store owner's son came out and asked what they were doing. Kim broke down, begged for help, said he'd been held against his will. The man offered to take them to the police to file a report. Instead, he called their boss, who beat Kim with a rake and it was back to the salt fields. <\/p>\n
\"I couldn't fight back,\" Kim said, in a recent series of interviews with The Associated Press whose details are corroborated by court records and by lawyers, police and government officials. \"The islanders are too organized, too connected.\" <\/p>\n
* * * <\/p>\n
Slavery thrives on this chain of 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. <\/p>\n
Five times during the past decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged, each time generating national shame and outrage. Kim's case prompted a nationwide government probe during the course of several months last year. Officials searched more than 38,000 salt, fish and agricultural farms and disabled facilities and found more than 100 workers who had received no or only scant pay, and more than 100 who had been reported missing by their families. <\/p>\n
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Continued here: <\/p>\n
Slaves endure 'a living hell' on remote South Korean islands<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SINUI ISLAND, South Korea He ran the first chance he got. The summer sun beat down on the shallow, 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 Continue reading