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. Ranging from streetwalkers in red light districts to expensive "room salons" for private parties, there are 1.2 million women engaged in the sex industry at any given time, according to civic organizations (that would mean that 20% of women between 18 and 29 are in the industry, making for a greater number of prostitutes than schoolteachers). Official government estimates put the figure closer to 500,000.
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.
A traditional red, white, and blue barber pole 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 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 United States Department of State gives South Korea high marks for its efforts to combat human trafficking. 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.
In 2000, 222 girls under 18 were arrested for engaging in wonjo gyoje, or compensated dating with older men,[1] and in 1999 the Commission on Youth Protection reported that over half of girls arrested for prostitution were under 16.
[edit] Historical context
Main articles: Kisaeng; Comfort women
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. 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 and the 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. 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.
[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.
There has been a recent (2004) crackdown on brothels in the red light district. Many of them have been "closed", but in reality all that has happened is the areas of the red light district have been dispearsed and relocated.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- "Sex Work in South Korea", Asia Monitor Resource Center. Accessed on February 10, 2006
- "Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation: Korea", Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Accessed on February 10, 2006
- Moon, Katharine H.S., "Sex Among Allies:Military Prostitution in U.S./Korea Relations" Columbia Press, 1997. Accessed on February 10, 2006
- "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.
- "Ladies of the 1950s Nights", Andrei Lankov, The Korea Times, January 2, 2006. Accessed May 9, 2006.
News reports
- "1 Out of 5 Prostitutes Begin Sex Trade Under Age of 14", The Korea Times, February 10, 2006. Accessed on February 11, 2006
- "Korean sex trade 'victims' strike for rights", The Asia Times, December 22, 2004. Accessed on February 10, 2006
- "South Korea Improves Human Trafficking Record", The Chosun Ilbo, June 15, 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
- "Sex-Crazy Koreans", Korea Times, July 7, 2005.
