When caregiving takes up childhood: South Korea's hidden child labor

For generations, child labor in Korea had a recognizable face.

It was the elementary school student mobilized for farm work during Japan's colonial rule.

The teenage girl bent over sewing machines in textile and wig factories during the country’s rapid industrialization.

The boy spending long hours in workshops instead of classrooms to help support his family.

Those images helped shape a national understanding that child labor belonged to another era.

Today, South Korea is one of the world’s lar ...