Slavery on salt farms in Sinan County

An unregistered employment agency told them they could earn money by working on Sinan County's salt farms.

Most residents living in the islands and cities had helped the abusers to find the victims running away before this matter became an issue in South Korea.

[4] Investigations by Korean authorities and independent journalists in 2013 and 2014 discovered around 163 salt farm employees, most of them mentally or physically disabled, who were being held and worked under slave-like conditions.

Around 50 island farm owners and regional job brokers were indicted or convicted of related crimes.

[6] Park Yong-chan (박용찬), a party member of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy and a deputy Speaker of the Sinan County council was arrested by the Jeonnam provincial police on 15 April 2014 for failure to pay three labourers who had worked on his salt evaporation pond, whom he should have paid a total of one hundred million won.

[11] Some South Korean internet sites such as Naver criticised both Sinan County and the local police.

Based on Sinan County's geographical position, Ilbe Storehouse, a South Korean website, criticised the Honam region as a whole.