Jul 20, 2026 · 44 min · 13 segments
On January 24, 2007, a man was stopped at Ansan Station dragging a heavy suitcase that was leaving a fresh trail of blood across the floor tiles. When a station worker confronted him, he claimed the…
Long before this man rolled his leaking suitcase into Ansan Station, there was a complicated love affair.
We are going to start this episode introducing a man we only know as his family name, Han.
We will refer to all of the involved in today's case simply by their publicly known family names rather than pseudonyms since they are all distinct enough.
Through his younger brother, who had married a Korean woman, Han was introduced to his sister-in-law's cousin when he arrived to Korea, and they soon developed a serious long-term romantic relationship that began in 2001.
For the first five years, Han built a life working manual labor jobs in the factories, all while undocumented.
On May 22, 2006, his five years of living carefree ended when the regional immigration enforcement authorities came to his workplace.
His immigration status was discovered, and he was promptly deported back to his hometown in Tiandao, China.
34-year-old Korean woman, Jung, who was known as an exceptionally structured, meticulous factory worker.
She had spent her adult life working these high-volume production line jobs in the manufacturing factories in Busan.
She had spent the last 10 years working at a garment plant, assembling heavy fabrics, until in 2005, she moved north to Seoul to work in a stone processing factory before ultimately taking a job assembling electronic components for a computer parts manufacturing company in Ansan.
Jung was living in Wangokdang, which is a neighborhood surrounding Banwol Industrial Complex.
This was during the time frame of the 3D jobs that we mentioned in the episode about the daechangho.
These are dirty, dangerous, and demanding jobs that were underpaid and always hiring.
And to immigrants who were undocumented, they offered little protections if they got hurt.
To prevent the manufacturing workers from decreasing as Korean people stopped working in these factories, the government launched the Industrial Trainee System in 1993.
Long before this man rolled his leaking suitcase into Ansan Station, there was a complicated love affair.
We are going to start this episode introducing a man we only know as his family name, Han.
We will refer to all of the involved in today's case simply by their publicly known family names rather than pseudonyms since they are all distinct enough.
Through his younger brother, who had married a Korean woman, Han was introduced to his sister-in-law's cousin when he arrived to Korea, and they soon developed a serious long-term romantic relationship that began in 2001.
For the first five years, Han built a life working manual labor jobs in the factories, all while undocumented.
On May 22, 2006, his five years of living carefree ended when the regional immigration enforcement authorities came to his workplace.
His immigration status was discovered, and he was promptly deported back to his hometown in Tiandao, China.
34-year-old Korean woman, Jung, who was known as an exceptionally structured, meticulous factory worker.
She had spent her adult life working these high-volume production line jobs in the manufacturing factories in Busan.
She had spent the last 10 years working at a garment plant, assembling heavy fabrics, until in 2005, she moved north to Seoul to work in a stone processing factory before ultimately taking a job assembling electronic components for a computer parts manufacturing company in Ansan.
Jung was living in Wangokdang, which is a neighborhood surrounding Banwol Industrial Complex.
This was during the time frame of the 3D jobs that we mentioned in the episode about the daechangho.
These are dirty, dangerous, and demanding jobs that were underpaid and always hiring.
And to immigrants who were undocumented, they offered little protections if they got hurt.
To prevent the manufacturing workers from decreasing as Korean people stopped working in these factories, the government launched the Industrial Trainee System in 1993.
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