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.
In this Jan. 24, 2014 image taken from a video footage released by Guro Police, Kim Seong-baek, left Cheap Jeff Skinner Jersey , meets with his mother, not identified her name, after he was rescued from a salt farm, at Guro Police Station in Seoul, South Korea. The August sun beat down on the shallow, sea-fed fields where Kim 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 Cheap Justin Faulk Jersey , and the two men - both disabled - headed for the coast. (AP PhotoGuro Police) In this Feb. 19, 2014, lawmakers and human right activists look at salt farms as a part of human rights inspection on Sinui Island, South Korea. 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. Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged, each time generating national shame and outrage. (AP PhotoAhn Young-joon) In this Jan. 24, 2014 image taken from a video footage released by Guro Police Adidas Jeff Skinner Jersey , Kim Seong-baek stands on the deck of a boat leaving Sinui Island, South Korea. The August sun beat down on the shallow, sea-fed fields where Kim 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. (AP PhotoGuro Police) In this Feb. 19, 2014, lawmakers Adidas Justin Faulk Jersey , left and right, meet with salt farm owners and workers as a part of human rights inspection on Sinui Island, South Korea. 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. Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged, each time generating national shame and outrage. (AP PhotoAhn Young-joon)
Far from Seoul, the glittering steel-and-glass capital of one of Asia's richest countries, they were now hunted men on this tiny Authentic Jeff Skinner Jersey , remote island where the enslavement of disabled salt farm workers is an open secret.
"It was a living hell," Kim said. "I thought my life was over."
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.
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.
"I couldn't fight back Authentic Justin Faulk Jersey ," 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."