Baek Sung-hui’s hands are irreversiblydisfigured from 40 years of manual labor. Now the head of a small South Korean clothing company, she remembers starting out as a teenage seamstress and later working through three pregnancies, with no break after giving birth.
“These days, even needles can’t penetrate my stiff fingers,” Baek said, caressing the glittering Christmas sweater that her company recently made. “I remember setting up a tent next to my newborn baby — to continue making clothes, to keep the business going.”
Baek Sung-hui’s hands are irreversiblydisfigured from 40 years of manual labor. Now the head of a small South Korean clothing company, she remembers starting out as a teenage seamstress and later working through three pregnancies, with no break after giving birth.
“These days, even needles can’t penetrate my stiff fingers,” Baek said, caressing the glittering Christmas sweater that her company recently made. “I remember setting up a tent next to my newborn baby — to continue making clothes, to keep the business going.”
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Jeongmin Kim is the Lead Correspondent at NK News and Editorial Director at KOREA PRO, based in Seoul. Kim covers inter-Korean relations and North and South Korean foreign and military affairs. Kim has covered the 2022 ROK presidential election on the ground, and prior to joining NK News, she worked for the CSIS Korea Chair in Washington D.C. and Reuters news agency’s Seoul bureau.