South Korea’s Sex Industry Thrives Underground a Decade After Crackdown
http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/11/28/south-koreas-sex-industry-thrives-underground-a-decade-after-crackdown/
6:30 pm KST Nov 28, 2014
By YEWON KANG
Choi Min-seo has been sitting on display behind a large shop-front window for almost an hour wearing only lingerie. Neon red and blue lights flicker in the narrow alley next to a subway station in eastern Seoul, drawing attention to her and to other scantily-clad women.
But traffic is light in this alley that was once tightly cramped with brothels, in an area known as Cheongnyangni 588. Every other window has gone dark, and clients shopping for sex on a recent night were scarce.
This fall marked the 10th anniversary of a sweeping anti-prostitution law in South Korea, meant to increase penalties for those who buy and sell sex, toughen police crackdowns against brothels and offer help for women seeking a way out of a life of prostitution. Buying or selling sex is illegal in South Korea.
The impact is clear: The free-wheeling red-light districts that once dotted many of South Korea’s major cities have been mostly tamed. Many of the brothels that once operated in those districts have been forced out of business. Those that remain face the threat of police raids.
While most brothels in South Korea have closed since the introduction of a new sex-trade law a decade ago, some remain in Cheongnyangni 588. In this photo, the inside of one of the window displays. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
But despite the law’s successes in red-light zones, the country’s sex trade continues to flourish underground, say people who follow the industry.
“Many other girls who used to work here have left for massage parlors or huegaetael,” said Ms. Choi, 36, referring to cheap hotels that are known as places where sex is bought and sold in more discrete way than in the red-light districts of old. Choi Min-seo is a pseudonym.
In order to skirt police crackdowns, prostitution these days is more commonly found in places such as hotels that turn a blind eye to the sex trade and in back rooms of otherwise legitimate businesses like massage parlors and bars, according to people who monitor the industry. In another sign of the times, initial transactions between workers and clients often take place online, they say, further complicating authorities’ efforts to track them.
Kim Yeo-ni, a 26-year-old sex worker whose name is also a pseudonym, is an example of South Korea’s evolving sex trade. She said she sells sex for a living over the Internet, connecting with clients through websites that are disguised as social meetup sites to make deals on the price, type of service and where to meet.
One brothel owner in the Cheongnyangni 588 area estimates two-thirds of roughly 500 prostitutes based in the area a decade ago have moved on. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
Ms. Kim says she’s experienced physical violence and verbal abuse by some of her clients. But she still prefers to sell sex over her previous jobs as a restaurant waitress and a bar hostess.
“The autonomy that the job allows is why I choose to stay in this business,” she said, adding that she also prefers to work on her own, instead of in a brothel.
Police say that enforcing the sex-trade law has become more difficult as prostitution has dispersed from the red-light districts, and officers lack the resources they need to broaden their crackdowns.
“We’ve been focusing on targeting what we call mutant businesses that illegally sell sex, especially ones near schools,” said an officer with the National Police Agency. “But it costs a lot to follow through and we just don’t have the manpower,” the officer said.
Sex workers’ rooms in Cheongnyangni 588. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
An officer in charge of the area that includes the Cheongnyangni 588 red-light district declined to comment.
Kim Kang-ja, a former senior police officer in Seoul known for leading a crackdown on underage sex trafficking in 2000, agrees that money and manpower allocated for tackling the sex trade has never been sufficient for a systematic approach to the issue.
“The current approach only pushes the industry further underground and makes business owners more guileful,” she said.
About 270,000 Korean women worked in prostitution or 3.5% of all women in their 20s and 30s, according to a 2007 report into the industry by the government’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The size of sex industry, both from openly operating brothels and underground businesses, was estimated at 14 trillion won ($12.7 billion), the report said.
People who follow the industry say South Korea’s sex trade continues to flourish in back rooms of otherwise legitimate businesses like massage parlors and bars. This photo is an aerial view of Cheongnyangni 588. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
The ministry conducted another report in 2010 but refused to release the results, saying it had grown difficult to collect reliable data because of the evolving nature of the sex trade.
But there’s little debate in South Korea that prostitution is still widespread. In a high-profile media report in 2012, a major national newspaper reported that it was able to find more than 100 bars and salons in one-kilometer radiuses of the center of the cities of Seoul, Busan, Ulsan and Gwangju that sold sex.
Kim Kweon-young, director of the women’s rights support division in the gender equality ministry said that after the anti- sex trade law was introduced the government added training services to support women exiting prostitution. He declined to elaborate on how effective the exit programs have been.
There are 88 government-run support centers that assist women who decide to leave prostitution, up from 61 in 2004, according to data from the ministry. The government provides an array of assistance for women seeking help, including counseling, training and a monthly stipend of 400,000 won, or about $370.
The number of users of the support centers fell to 8,782 in 2013, the latest data available, from 18,424 in 2005, the ministry said.
A sex worker’s room in the Cheongnyangni 588 district. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
According to Jun Kyung-soon, a long-term brothel owner in the Cheongnyangni 588 red-light zone, two-thirds of the roughly 500 prostitutes based in the area a decade ago have moved on.
“There have been rumors that more brothels are going away, so some regular customers stopped coming, assuming we’re closed, too,” said Ms. Choi, the woman who works in the area. “Now I have to work a full month to make the same amount of money I used to make in half a month.” She declined to say how much she earns.
Even so, she said she still prefers to work from the relatively protected confines of a brothel and its owner, compared with other places such as hotels, where she says there are fewer rules and more dangers for sex workers.
“I wouldn’t move there even for better money,” she said.
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[jamawns' comment]
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How can a woman alone in Korean society escape from life-lasting prostitution with 40%-300% interest rate loan, while a Japanese comfort woman during Imperial Japanese annexation era could earn large amount of money enough to buy 5 new houses or to take care of whole families by 3.5 years duty?
Now, you find comfort women were not sex slaves.
http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/11/28/south-koreas-sex-industry-thrives-underground-a-decade-after-crackdown/
6:30 pm KST Nov 28, 2014
By YEWON KANG
Choi Min-seo has been sitting on display behind a large shop-front window for almost an hour wearing only lingerie. Neon red and blue lights flicker in the narrow alley next to a subway station in eastern Seoul, drawing attention to her and to other scantily-clad women.
But traffic is light in this alley that was once tightly cramped with brothels, in an area known as Cheongnyangni 588. Every other window has gone dark, and clients shopping for sex on a recent night were scarce.
This fall marked the 10th anniversary of a sweeping anti-prostitution law in South Korea, meant to increase penalties for those who buy and sell sex, toughen police crackdowns against brothels and offer help for women seeking a way out of a life of prostitution. Buying or selling sex is illegal in South Korea.
The impact is clear: The free-wheeling red-light districts that once dotted many of South Korea’s major cities have been mostly tamed. Many of the brothels that once operated in those districts have been forced out of business. Those that remain face the threat of police raids.
While most brothels in South Korea have closed since the introduction of a new sex-trade law a decade ago, some remain in Cheongnyangni 588. In this photo, the inside of one of the window displays. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
But despite the law’s successes in red-light zones, the country’s sex trade continues to flourish underground, say people who follow the industry.
“Many other girls who used to work here have left for massage parlors or huegaetael,” said Ms. Choi, 36, referring to cheap hotels that are known as places where sex is bought and sold in more discrete way than in the red-light districts of old. Choi Min-seo is a pseudonym.
In order to skirt police crackdowns, prostitution these days is more commonly found in places such as hotels that turn a blind eye to the sex trade and in back rooms of otherwise legitimate businesses like massage parlors and bars, according to people who monitor the industry. In another sign of the times, initial transactions between workers and clients often take place online, they say, further complicating authorities’ efforts to track them.
Kim Yeo-ni, a 26-year-old sex worker whose name is also a pseudonym, is an example of South Korea’s evolving sex trade. She said she sells sex for a living over the Internet, connecting with clients through websites that are disguised as social meetup sites to make deals on the price, type of service and where to meet.
One brothel owner in the Cheongnyangni 588 area estimates two-thirds of roughly 500 prostitutes based in the area a decade ago have moved on. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
Ms. Kim says she’s experienced physical violence and verbal abuse by some of her clients. But she still prefers to sell sex over her previous jobs as a restaurant waitress and a bar hostess.
“The autonomy that the job allows is why I choose to stay in this business,” she said, adding that she also prefers to work on her own, instead of in a brothel.
Police say that enforcing the sex-trade law has become more difficult as prostitution has dispersed from the red-light districts, and officers lack the resources they need to broaden their crackdowns.
“We’ve been focusing on targeting what we call mutant businesses that illegally sell sex, especially ones near schools,” said an officer with the National Police Agency. “But it costs a lot to follow through and we just don’t have the manpower,” the officer said.
Sex workers’ rooms in Cheongnyangni 588. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
An officer in charge of the area that includes the Cheongnyangni 588 red-light district declined to comment.
Kim Kang-ja, a former senior police officer in Seoul known for leading a crackdown on underage sex trafficking in 2000, agrees that money and manpower allocated for tackling the sex trade has never been sufficient for a systematic approach to the issue.
“The current approach only pushes the industry further underground and makes business owners more guileful,” she said.
About 270,000 Korean women worked in prostitution or 3.5% of all women in their 20s and 30s, according to a 2007 report into the industry by the government’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The size of sex industry, both from openly operating brothels and underground businesses, was estimated at 14 trillion won ($12.7 billion), the report said.
People who follow the industry say South Korea’s sex trade continues to flourish in back rooms of otherwise legitimate businesses like massage parlors and bars. This photo is an aerial view of Cheongnyangni 588. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
The ministry conducted another report in 2010 but refused to release the results, saying it had grown difficult to collect reliable data because of the evolving nature of the sex trade.
But there’s little debate in South Korea that prostitution is still widespread. In a high-profile media report in 2012, a major national newspaper reported that it was able to find more than 100 bars and salons in one-kilometer radiuses of the center of the cities of Seoul, Busan, Ulsan and Gwangju that sold sex.
Kim Kweon-young, director of the women’s rights support division in the gender equality ministry said that after the anti- sex trade law was introduced the government added training services to support women exiting prostitution. He declined to elaborate on how effective the exit programs have been.
There are 88 government-run support centers that assist women who decide to leave prostitution, up from 61 in 2004, according to data from the ministry. The government provides an array of assistance for women seeking help, including counseling, training and a monthly stipend of 400,000 won, or about $370.
The number of users of the support centers fell to 8,782 in 2013, the latest data available, from 18,424 in 2005, the ministry said.
A sex worker’s room in the Cheongnyangni 588 district. Man-chul Kim for The Wall Street Journal
According to Jun Kyung-soon, a long-term brothel owner in the Cheongnyangni 588 red-light zone, two-thirds of the roughly 500 prostitutes based in the area a decade ago have moved on.
“There have been rumors that more brothels are going away, so some regular customers stopped coming, assuming we’re closed, too,” said Ms. Choi, the woman who works in the area. “Now I have to work a full month to make the same amount of money I used to make in half a month.” She declined to say how much she earns.
Even so, she said she still prefers to work from the relatively protected confines of a brothel and its owner, compared with other places such as hotels, where she says there are fewer rules and more dangers for sex workers.
“I wouldn’t move there even for better money,” she said.
The WSJ is now on LINE. Scan to follow or click “Add Friends” from your mobile device to add our official account.
------------------------
[jamawns' comment]
------------------------
How can a woman alone in Korean society escape from life-lasting prostitution with 40%-300% interest rate loan, while a Japanese comfort woman during Imperial Japanese annexation era could earn large amount of money enough to buy 5 new houses or to take care of whole families by 3.5 years duty?
Now, you find comfort women were not sex slaves.
