SOUTH Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on the government to formally apologise to victims of a two-decade policy of state-sanctioned kidnapping and enslavement.

Thousands were snatched from the streets between the 1960s and 1980s and interned in special camps such as the Brothers Home at Busan in a government campaign to “beautify the streets.” 

Initial targets were the homeless but since those abducted were used as slave labourers the camps were profitable, and many victims, including children, were snatched at random at train stations or other public places.