Police are investigating suspicions that officers in the Yongsan area have been taking kickbacks from brothel owners looking to protect their businesses from a government crackdown:
Police on Friday opened an investigation into the allegations that some brothel operators in Yongsan, central Seoul, have bribed police officers in the district to seek support in maintaining their business and protection from government crackdowns.
About 30 former and incumbent officers from Yongsan Police Station have allegedly been involved in the bribery case. Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) said it has a tip that the officers in Yongsan received a total of 33 million won in kickbacks over the past several years from brothel operators.
Now, this is bizarre:
The investigation came after a brothel owner, identified by the surname Park, attempted to burn himself on Thursday at the police station, demanding due respect from the police. Park threatened to disclose a secret book containing the names of the officers he and other operators had bribed.
It is not yet clear why he made the threat open. Park suffered a minor injury and was hospitalized.
As the police move to gather information about the incident, he visited the police station again early yesterday morning and made an apology. He said he lied about the secret book, but police suspect he has close ties with police at the Yongsan station.
On a more serious note, the government’s announced prostitution crackdown has touched a nerve:
The government announced earlier that it plans to gradually shut down red-light districts beginning in 2007.
The anti-prostitution policy touched off strong protests from brothel owners. A group of owners held a press conference earlier this month and threatened to take countermeasures, including a petition with a court to defend their property rights.
Brothel owners have demanded legalization of the prostitution business, a controversial request that has long been disputed in Korea where prostitution booms in diverse forms despite the government ban.
5 Comments
Perhaps Mr. Park slept on his threat overnight, and in his dreams had a vision of what awaits brothel owners in the afterlife. He then decided he would wait awhile before beginning to get “burned up” about things….
What an entertaining spectacle of life around the world this internet business affords us. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine the stuff that goes on.
I wonder what suggested this idea to Mr. Park in the first place. (I presume he had a role model, since his occupation of “brothel owner” suggests an authoritarian personality as the predominant factor in his character (as opposed to one of, say, original thinking)).
Didn’t somebody commit suicide, or attempt it, by fire in South Korea as a political protest recently (last couple of years), or am I dreaming that? Maybe it was another Asian country. No need for it in North Korea — you can just sit by the tracks and wait for the train to go by.
I know of course about the several famous Buddhist monk self-immolations in South Vietnam done as a protest against the Catholic Diem government (in 1963 as I recall).
But, there is no prostitution in Korea
Well, only around the US Army bases, of course! And what’s up with all the self-inflicted-wound protests? Where the hell does that come from?
I know of course about the several famous Buddhist monk self-immolations in South Vietnam done as a protest against the Catholic Diem government (in 1963 as I recall). - Paul H.
There was also a famous self-burning of a Czech student in 1968 on Wenzel’s Square in Prague, against the Soviet and Warsaw Pact invasion to gunn down the so-called “Spring of Prague”, an opening-up of the Czech communists to the Western bloc and democracy.
Self-immolations of Falung-Gong (Falun-Dao) in Mainland China, prominently at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. There was also a time of frequent self-combustions in several European countries by Kurdish PKK-supporters in protest against the Turkish abduction and arrest of PKK leader ??calan.
A bribing Korean brothel-owner protests against corrupt Korean police officers in such a “burning” fashion - publicity is cheap nowadays, I guess. And ethical standards, too.
In the case of Korea, Chun Tae-il’s self-immolation against the inhuman working conditions in factories in 1970 should never be forgotten - even though mentioning him with this brothel owner is close to blasphemy to his memory.
It’d be like the owner of Chun Tae-il’s factory burning himself for the right to exploit workers.
In Korean: http://www.juntaeil.com
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