Prostitution in South Korea

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Prostitution in South Korea is a large illegal industry. The Ministry of Gender and Family Equality estimated that it comprises over 4% of South Korea's GDP, with revenue exceeding $22 billion^[1][2]. Prostitution ranges from streetwalkers in red light districts to expensive "room salons" for private parties^[3]. Out of a total population of about 48 million, there are 1.2 million women engaged in the sex industry ^[4], according to one civic organization. Official government estimates put the figure closer to 500,000.^[5] The government stopped keeping official figures in 2004. South Korea is also a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking; a significant number of women from Uzbekistan and Southeast Asia (particularly the Philippines) are brought to the country to work as prostitutes or "juicy girls", many of whom are believed to be virtual slaves. An increasing number of women are being taken to the United States, Canada, and Australia to work as prostitutes, and a number of them claim to have been tricked or forced.

A doubled barber's pole with red, white, and blue is a common sign that a building contains a brothel or a massage parlor that offers sexual services. Other means of advertising are more explicit, including cards and flyers distributed haphazardly on city sidewalks or placed on the windowshields of parked cars, with pictures of scantily clad women accompanied by directions, telephone numbers, and sometimes maps and accepted credit cards.

In 2004, the government passed the Act on the Prevention of the Sex Trade and Protection of its Victims, a sweeping new law criminalizing human trafficking and stiffening penalties for brothel owners, establishing a number of shelters for victims and ending their automatic deportation. Some Korean sex workers, however, protested what they saw as a threat to their livelihoods. The law's passage was followed by a crackdown which reports indicate was unsuccessful at making prostitution less lucrative or popular.

The United States Department of State gives South Korea high marks for its efforts to combat human trafficking^[6]. With 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea, there are several red light districts near the bases and many Korean civic organizations campaign against military prostitution. Though United States Forces Korea cooperates with Korean authorities, many accuse of it failing to do enough or even of shirking its duty.^[7]

In 2000, 222 girls under 18 were arrested for engaging in wonjo gyoje, or compensated dating with older men ^[8], and in 1999 the Commission on Youth Protection reported that over half of girls arrested for prostitution were under 16.

In December 2006, The Ministry for Gender Equality, in an attempt to address the issue of high demand for prostitutes among Korean men, offered cash to companies whose male employees pledged not to pay for sex after office parties. The people responsible for this policy claimed that they want to put an end to a culture in which men get drunk at parties and go on to buy sex.^[9]

[edit] Historical context

Main articles: Kisaeng; Comfort women

Korea has a long history of kisaeng as its cultural part, somewhat of a mixture of prostitute and geisha who provide sex and/or entertaining performance.

During the Japanese occupation, particularly during World War II, many Korean women were forced to become "comfort women", essentially sex slaves who served the Japanese soldiers.^[10] Apart from the comfort women, prostitution during those days was essentially tolerated.

With the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945, prostitution was made illegal by the governing United States authority, and the law was re-confirmed by the new South Korean parliament in 1948. Nevertheless, prostitution flourished in the next decades as the law was not treated seriously; it continued in much the same basic forms as it had before, though with US soldiers replacing Japanese as the foreign military customers. The Korean War saw the rise of prostitution centers in the Jongno-3-ga area, Mia-ri, and Cheongnyangni 588, which was the last stop for many Korean soldiers before the front lines.

The 1960s saw the effective institution of "camp towns" around the US bases, where brothels were allowed to operate unfettered^[11]. Though prostitution continued to be technically illegal, it was in fact tolerated at all levels by authorities. In the 1970s Japanese sex tourists shifted their focus from Taiwan to South Korea (called "Kisaeng Tourism") since President Park Chung Hee restarted promotion of "Kisaeng diplomacy" for foreign currency after the establishment of the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea until 1990s.^[12]

[edit] Modern Prostitution

Today, while a number of prostitutes do work in brothels that do little to conceal their activity, most are believed to work in much more sophisticated settings, where sex might take place only at the discretion of the woman herself. A "room salon" or a "hostess bar" is a venue where groups of businessmen, usually using the company credit card, can drink with young hostesses. No sex takes place on the premises but men sometimes negotiate a tryst elsewhere.

Massage parlors offering sexual services sometimes distinguish themselves from legitimate parlors by advertising with the word "anma" (안마), sometimes quite openly with large neon signs. Following the enactment of the Special Law in 2004, there was a crackdown on red-light districts; while many of the brothels in those areas were forced to close, the crackdown came as quickly as it went, with the result that prostitution was driven more underground but also became a more competitive business with lower prices and more services^[13]. Well-known redlight districts full of "glass houses", where girls wait for customers in small rooms with curtains, still exist in Busan and Suwon.

Underage prostitution and Korean men^[14]. Korean men are becoming increasing more apparent in the aggravating problem of underage prostitution, particularly in Cambodia and The Philippines. "An increasing number of Koreans buy sex in the Philippines, sometimes abusing prostitutes. The Philippine government has urged the Korean government to take firm action against soliciting prostitution, in particular buying sex from children...There is a possibility that a mounting number of Korean tourists in Cambodia might contribute to boosting the sex industry and human trafficking, especially threatening children who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation."^[15]

[edit] Sources

1. ^ "Comfort woman before and after Japanese rule--Korea's sex indusrty"
2. ^ *"A Youthful Mistake", Meredith May, The San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 2006. Second of a four-part series. Accessed on October 27, 2006.
3. ^ "Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation: Korea", Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Accessed on February 10, 2006
4. ^ *"Sex Work in South Korea", Asia Monitor Resource Center. Accessed on February 10, 2006
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ "South Korea Improves Human Trafficking Record", The Chosun Ilbo, June 15, 2004. Accessed on February 10, 2006
7. ^ *Moon, Katharine H.S., "Sex Among Allies:Military Prostitution in U.S./Korea Relations" Columbia Press, 1997. Accessed on October 27, 2006 (PDF link)
8. ^ [2]
9. ^ S Koreans offered cash for no sex, BBC News [3].
10. ^ Japanese Comfort Women, 1944, United States Office of War Information [4]
11. ^ "Ladies of the 1950s Nights", Andrei Lankov, The Korea Times, January 2, 2006. Accessed May 9, 2006.
12. ^ Plan to demolish famous 'kisaeng' house sparks controversy over Seoul's cultural asset policy Digital Korea Herald 02/17/2000 [5]
13. ^ *"From mobile sex to group sex, Korean sex industry thrives despite—or because of—Special Law", The Marmot's Hole blog. Accessed on April 27, 2006.
14. ^ "Human Trafficking, Korean men and underage prostitution", Human Trafficking.org - more and more Korean men are buying underage prostitutes. November 2005.
15. ^ Human Trafficking.org; More Korean Men are buying sex abroad. Adapted from: Chung Ah-young. "More Koreans Buy Sex Abroad." The Korea Times. October 31, 2005. [6]

News reports

• Video news report from The San Francisco Chronicle. Accessed on October 26, 2006.
• "1 Out of 5 Prostitutes Begin Sex Trade Under Age of 14", The Korea Times, February 10, 2006. Accessed on February 11, 2006
• Uncut version of an article from The Korea Herald, with photographs, by Michael Hurt. Accessed on October 26, 2006.
• "Korean sex trade 'victims' strike for rights", The Asia Times, December 22, 2004. Accessed on February 10, 2006
• "Korea's 'crackdown culture' - now it's brothels", The Asia Times, September 25, 2004. Accessed on February 10, 2006
• "Sex and denial in South Korea", The Asia Times, May 26, 2004. Accessed on February 10, 2006
• "Thousands of Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery For US Servicemen in South Korea", Feminist Daily News Wire, September 9, 2002. Accessed on February 10, 2006
• "Sex slaves", The Navy Times, August 12, 2002. Accessed on February 10, 2006
• "Base Instincts", Time Magazine, August 5, 2002. Accessed on February 10, 2006