Queens couple plead guilty to keeping children as slaves

Sook Yeong Park and Jeong Taek Lee held two Korean kids as slaves in their home for several years.



This week in New York, a Flushing couple admitted to holding two Korean children as slaves in their home for several years, forcing them to work long hours and withholding contact with their parents.

Couple Who Kept Korean Teens as 'Slaves' at Flushing Home Plead Guilty

50-year-old Sook Yeong Park pleaded guilty to two counts of labor trafficking. Park was sentenced to six months in prison followed by five years probation, after taking a plea deal. The 60-count indictment against her included grand larceny, forcible touching and assault for her treatment of the two children. Her husband, 54-year-old Jeong Taek Lee, was sentenced to five years probation.

The two victims, a 9-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister from Korea, were brought to stay with the couple in January 2010. Shortly afterwards, Park confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.

Queens woman kept Korean kids as slaves for six years

42-year-old Sook Yeong Park is accused of abusing and enslaving two children in her house since 2010.



This is horrific. In Queens, a woman is accused of keeping two Korean children in her house as slaves for more than five years, forcing them to do housework and give her massages, manicures and pedicures, beating them and making them sleep on the floor, while cutting off all communication with their parents.

Queens Woman Allegedly Kept Two Korean Children As Slaves

42-year-old Sook Yeong Park is charged with labor trafficking, third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. According to the district attorney, Park brought a 10-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother to the United States in 2010, confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.