Unpacking the Legacy of Human Trafficking in South Korea

• In Event: Transitional and Transnational Justice and Democracy in Korean Politics

Abstract

Although many see South Korea as an advanced Western democracy with strong human rights protections and significant global cultural influence through its food, music, film, and entertainment industries, it may come as a surprise that contemporary slavery exists today across South Korea in a variety of forms. This includes cases of enslavement in salt mines in Sinan County, one of the poorest and most rural parts of South Korea, as well as cases of forced labor on South Korean deep sea fishing vessels and in the hospitality/entertainment industry. South Korean men also venture on sex tourism across Southeast Asia, and human trafficking networks still smuggle South Korean women to the West to work in a variety of industries, from massage parlors in Washington, DC to nail salons in New York City. And cases of slavery have affected the electronic supply chains of the Samsung televisions and phones many of us use.

This paper illuminates the different contemporary forms of slavery that exist today in South Korea, including and going beyond militarized enslavement at US camp towns from the 1950s to the early 2000s. The paper also explores what South Korean lawmakers are doing to stem the tide of human trafficking and the geopolitical implications given South Korea’s downgraded ranking in the United States’ annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The paper also focuses on what we can learn from survivor narratives of human trafficking in South Korea to find a way to honor their wisdom and human rights. The paper concludes by looking at the legacy of Japanese militarized enslavement on the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century, and reflects on how much, and in what ways the legacy of such enslavement affects how and why human trafficking still occurs today in the Republic of Korea.

Author

• Monti Narayan Datta, University of Richmond