London, June 22 -- A recent investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has revealed that South Korean tech giant LG directly owns and operates a factory in China that employs ethnic minority workers under Beijing's controversial labour transfer programme, a scheme widely condemned by human rights groups as a form of state-enforced forced labour.

In March 2021, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a letter to the South Korean government expressing grave concerns over allegations of forced labour at Chinese factories linked to major Korean brands, including Samsung and LG.

While LG publicly claimed it had cut ties with the implicated supplier the previous year, it failed to disclose that it...