A U.S. government report claimed Thursday that indium produced in South Korea includes a Bolivian zinc input linked to child labor. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) made the assessment in the report, titled "2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor" -- a list that includes 204 goods from 82 countries and areas. "ILAB has reason to believe that indium produced in South Korea is produced with an input produced with child labor, specifically zinc mined in Bolivia," the bureau wrote in the report. Zinc from Bolivia was added to ILAB's list for child labor in 2010. Boys as young as age 13 commonly work in underground mines in Potosi and Oruro in southwestern Bolivia, where they are subjected to "hazardous" working conditions, including narrow tunnels, extreme temperatures and exposure to dust and chemicals without ventilation, according to the report. The bureau said that in 2022, South Korea imported over US$385 million of zinc concentrate from Bol ivia, and that some of these imports -- connected to child labor in the cooperatives sector in Bolivia -- were used to produce indium. South Korea is the world's second-largest producer of indium, producing 22.2 percent of the global supply in 2022, the report said. The bureau noted that its research suggests that further worldwide downstream products of zinc and indium, such as conductive glass, touchscreen devices, flat screen devices, televisions, phones, tablets, semiconductors and solar panels, may be produced with a connection to child labor. Source: Yonhap News Agency
