The South Korean miners sent to West Germany under a labour-for-loan deal

“He told his mother he was going to work in the coal mine, but he’ll be wearing a suit every day.”

In the 1960s and 70s, tens of thousands of South Koreans went to what was then known as West Germany as miners and nurses under a labour-for-loan deal, enduring dangerous conditions, health problems and years of silence about what they went through.

The CNA Correspondent podcast examines how their sacrifice helped fuel South Korea’s economic rise and helped fill labour shortages in West Germany. #CNACorrespondentPodcast #cnapodcasts #southkorea