Starting Wednesday night, beefed-up anti-prostitution laws will take affect in the Republic of Korea. By just about any standard, the current anti-prostitution law — the 1961 Prostitution Prevention Law (Korean: Yullak haengwi deung bangji-beop) — has abysmally failed to do what it was ostensibly intended to do, namely, stop prostitution. Accordingly, two new laws — the Sex Trade Middleman Punishment Law and Sex Trade Victim Protection Law — were enacted. The Joongang Ilbo (Korean) outlined some of the changes that are expected (?) to take place:
– Those who confine women and force them to sell sex or engage in human trafficking for the sex trade will get a minimum of three years in the pen. This roughly corresponds with the punishment given to those convicted of burglary or causing injuries resulting in death. Organized crime members engaging in human trafficking for the sex trade will get a minimum of five years. The original law had no separate articles for those crimes. The new laws also provide for up to W20 million rewards to those tipping police off to human trafficking. The law aims to pull out the roots of prostitution by hitting the middle men the hardest. It also calls for all the proceeds and property earned through pimping and prostitution advertisements to be confiscated. Also of note, not just sexual intercourse, but also other sexual acts using tools or parts of the body other than the genitals are now punishable. This makes cracking down on barbershops, massage parlors, phone rooms and other such places much easier, and one would imagine a W60,000 handjob much harder to obtain.
– The new laws designate those women who sell sex while being confined by their employers or while hooked on drugs as victims, as it does minors and women who are physically or mentally handicapped. Accordingly, they will not be punished. Women voluntarily involved in the trade, however, will be punished, and this is expected to cause controversy, both during actual crackdowns and during trials (as well it should). Debts owed by women to their employers, often used to shackle prostitutes to the trade, will automatically be canceled. The old law not only punished all women involved in prostitution, regardless of circumstance, but there have actually been instances of brothel owners suing their former employees for unpaid debts and/or breach of contract and winning.
Also of note, those men caught frequenting a prostitute’s services will be automatically booked and punished with up to a year in jail, W3 million in fines, or other punishments like community service. The previous law called for similar punishments, but most men busted in the company of a working girl were let go with a warning.
– The War on Prostitution: each police station will form three anti-prostitution teams to crack down intensively on prostitution for a one month test period. The Ministry of Gender Equality is doing anti-prostitution PR work at the water fountain behind the Sejong Cultural Center, and women’s groups in the greater Gyeonggi Province area will be doing promotion campaigns of their own. Since April, the office of the prime minister has been running a “Prostitution Prevention Measures Inspection Team,” composed of officials from 14 ministries and departments, so it would initially appear that the government is serious about eliminating prostitution from Korea.
The question, of course, is will the new laws work. CBS (Korean) pointed out that much of that rested with how seriously police took the crackdown. Police are expected to concentrate their efforts on confinement and human trafficking, pimps who rip their girls off financially, and forced prostitution. They are also expected to crack down on advertising, which means you might see a lot less of those lewd little advertising cards scattered in front of yogwans (or schools, for that matter) advertising for massages or other sexual services, at least for the next month.
The problem is that if this is going to work, the relationship between the police and pimps needs to be broken first. One person involved in the trade told CBS that the police never made patrols, and they informed pimps of crackdown dates. When new girls came, police were paid off with free service. The Segye Ilbo (Korean) also pointed to examples of police collusion with the sex trade. I blogged back in April that a brothel owner attempted to set himself on fire (no one was quite sure why) at Yongsan Police Station in connection with kickbacks being paid to cops in return for protection of their businesses.
If I might add, there are other issues as well. Unless you just arrived in Korea yesterday, you should be perfectly aware by now that prostitution is a major industry in Korea. That’s not a judgment, BTW; it’s a simple fact. We’re not talking about just red-light districts concentrated in certain areas; in any major city, it’s hard to walk five minutes in any direction without passing at least one establishment — massage parlors, barber shops, phone rooms, ticket tea houses, what have you — where one could blow his load for a reasonable sum of money. There are obviously a lot of people employed in this sector, and the ubiquitous nature of such places would suggest that prostitution is a reasonably well accepted form of male entertainment, even if a survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality resulted in 94.9 percent of respondents agreeing that prostitution is a crime (with 93.9 percent saying that the prostitution problem in Korea is “serious”). A serious crackdown is going to run into a ton of resistance, both of the active variety from people being put out of work and the passive variety by those who don’t see why the government should be getting involved in this.
For the police, I’m sure they’ll be on the ball for the first month, given the pressure they’ll most likely be receiving from the politicians whose whores are both out of the price range of the common man and beyond the scope of police attention. After that, I see no reason to believe this won’t end up like the much ballyhooed crackdown on drivers crossing stop lines — was absolutely awe-inspiring for the first week or so, but decidedly less so afterward. I can certainly see them going all out on the human trafficking, forced prostitution and underage prostitution — there would seem to be some sort of social consensus that such practices are intolerable. I can even imagine them having some success in cracking down on the financial shackles keeping women involved in the trade longer than they wish. Eliminating prostitution all together, however, would be a joke, and I can’t understand why the government doesn’t simply abandon the fiction and legalize the industry, making it easier to regulate (this would apply to other nations, too).
Also on the prostitution front, Newsis reported that 13 women’s groups from Gwangju/South Jeolla Province area announced Tuesday that they would oppose the deployment of U.S. Patriot missiles to Gwangju Airfield. Among the reasons given — in fact, the first one mentioned in the piece — was that the missile deployment might be accompanied by a base town, which could lead to nasty side effects like domestic and foreign human trafficking and prostitution. Personally, I found that remarkably rich; let’s just say Gwangju has some of the most vibrant “nightlife” of any city in Korea to which I’ve been, and I don’t think it was the Air Force guys from Gwangju of Gunsan driving it.
41 Comments
Nomad, you’re probably right. But society did change after 1997. Actresses and women entertainers did not dare publish nude photos. I think they faced jail time and the virtual end of their careers. Love hotels didn’t exist formally and blatantly, but they were imported from Japan ever since. Same thing for Glass looking rooms. Racing girls? Never heard of them before 97. The concept is from Japan. Racing girls going nude? I think that’s something taking place since 2004. Since last year or so, every woman who has a public good looking face is making money off nudes. True, the administration became very liberal, but I guess the women need money, too. Because it’s usually the has-been actresses who are leading the industry. Sad phenomenon overall. Sad. And another thing. The Japanese porn industry didn’t have a foothold in Korea in 1997. It was illegal. Now, I think they do.
All my talk may be crap, since the internet blossomed since 1997, but I think the poor economy had a part. I am open to the idea that all my talk is crap, though.
I am told that prostitution rings aren’t just near US servicemen. Korean military men regularly visit their locals as well. Some statistic on one web page seemed to claim that most Korean men lose their virginities as military men visiting brothels.
I think there’s racism in highlighting prostitution and US servicemen while ignoring prostitution with Korean army boys.
WJK,
When did you come to Korea? 1997? “Glass looking rooms” were in Korea when I got here in 1977. Love hotels were also around before 1997. As for “racing girls” I think they are pretty new, but are they considered prostitutes?
Is Japanese porn legal in Korea?
Interesting timing here, apparently the Pentagon wants to make the patronizing of prostitutes by U.S. troops overseas an offense subject to court-martial.
Sorry, I missed that you already wrote about this.
The folks down here at Osan AB have been doing that for a while now. There’ve been a few lads who got stripes taken and/or lost part of their monthly pay for paying the barfines at the local clubs.
Personally, I think the ruined economy since 1997 drove many women to prostitution.
“Personally, I think the ruined economy since 1997 drove many women to prostitution”
That may have pushed some over the edge who otherwise wouldn’t have gone into the profession, but let me assure you, prostitution was very much alive and well before 1997.
I wasn’t 18 till 1997. Korean TV news didn’t even mention glass looking rooms until after 1997. I specifically remember reading a Korean newspaper saying something about Kim Dae Jung trying to legalize and freeing up importing of Japanese cultural material, such as Japanese porn. KDJ’s thinking was that he was making Korean society more liberal and open minded. I think KDJ’s stupid. Porn isn’t culture. Love hotels didn’t make Korean TV news before 1997. If they were around, they weren’t mentioned on Korean TV for children to watch on the 9pm news. I remember the TV news showing concerned parents protesting the building of giant love motels near their apartment residentil areas. They said the love hotels would corrupt their kids and the hotels would lower their property values.
Even regular Japanese movies and TV shows were not imported to Korea before 1997. Some cartoons were okay, but heavily edited. I think the reason was that there was concern of Korean social morals adopting the Japanese way of thinking. You do know that Japan houses the most mental patients as a percentage of their population, right? They have gods for all occasions, too. I presume that is to provide an outlet for various psychological problems.
I’m pretty sure publishing nudes were illegal in Korea until recently. Kim Hee Sun cried a river and insisted on her not being the alleged nude person a couple years back. No one does that anymore.
Gerry Beavers, do you live in Japan? I lived in South Korea from 86 to 91. As a kid, basically.
By the way, why do you defend Japan’s war crimes? If you were in China or Japan during World War 2 as a white man, they would have kept you in internment camps. You know that, don’t you?
While living the states, I did realize though that virtually all Korean TV shows were modeled on Japanese TV shows and their ways of programming. I guess it was okay for them to watch Japanese material, but not the public. Until recently, anyway.
Is this crackdown done because it’s a slow day for the gov’t? I can see someone recommending a fix for the driving if they are bored. But prostitution?
WJK:
Where are you coming from? Japan interred Americans, British, Dutch, etc. The Chinese were fighting the Japanese - now, why would they want to keep Westerners in internment camps, if they were all on the same side?
Love hotels didn?€™t exist formally and blatantly
My first three nights in Korea, 4 to 6 July 1990, were spent in a love hotel, near Yonsei. The name wasn’t “love hotel”, but the patrons were what they are today. The owners were very surprised that I would be staying more than an hour, let alone 3 days.
Even see the classic movie “Hayan Jeon’jaeng?” A surprisingly young-looking Ahn Seong-gi goes out with friends to a bar, where they drink with girls, who they give money to, and then go have sex with. Nary a white man in sight. I think that was made in the late 70s.
Oh yeah, anyone here know what a kisaeng is? See any correlation between Korea’s history of jjeop, kisaeng and yuheungjip with 588, daehwabang and anma?
Just asking.
I don’t know how significant the changes were in 1997. But I agree that the internet has certainly openned the pandora’s box sexually.
While sex is certainly nothing new (ask Adam and Eve) it took a whole new spin when instead of secretly having some obscure kink - you could find thousands of pics and stories. if you lonely, you can chat, or have virtual sex, for little money, if any. This doesn’t even begin to discuss the implications of virtual ethics and “when does cheating begin?”
I am wondering if ‘97 is (or will be) seen as something like “the summer of love” or perhaps more like the into to the 60’s when views were changing quickly on everything. Brothels, massage parlors were around before, but I am curious to know about the changes - for example when did “Erotic Island” and other “adult” programs become part of standard cable late-night programing? When did the industry begin its liter campaign of dropping flyers and cards all over the place? Any ideas?
The sex trade in China
Last February, inspired by a Singaporean judge, I decided to survey the number of places of “ill repute” in Zhangjiagang City, Yanshe Town (where I was then living). I began the survey immediately after I wrote that post and completed
Please remember guys that most of these girls are working VOLUNTARILY, legitimately making a living. Their individual rights should be respected.
WJK - Yes, 1997 was a big year, it was the year you opened your eyes to what had been going on around you your whole life. 1997 was not much different than 1987 or 1977 — whether renting hotel rooms by the hour, picking whores from behind glass or getting a hander or blowie in a barber shop — it’s all been around before and it’ll be around again once this crackdown ends. Sorry to bring you this newsflash but the universe isn’t centered on your experience.
Kimbob,
Only one Korean was hanged, as far as I know. The other Koreans were shot for their war crimes or were imprisoned.
There were no “Nuremberg trials” in Japan because Japan has no city named Nuremberg, but there were war crime trials in Japan and in other countries after the war. Tojo was not the only high-ranking war criminal hanged for his war crimes. As I understand it, there are 14 Class-A war criminals enshired at the Yaukuni Shine in Japan. Class-A means that they were high-ranking policy makers.
Only class-A war criminals were hanged. The others were shot if their crimes were serious enough.
As I said, the general in charge of the P.O.W. camps in the Philippines was Korean, so your statement that “The camps weren’t run by Koreans” is wrong.
WJK,
If I had been an American captured during the war in the Pacific, there is a very good chance I would have been in a P.O.W. camp guarded by Korean guards, or I might have been in a P.O.W. camp in Korea, itself.
I do not defend Japanese war crimes, but I do like to point out that Koreans were a part of the Japanese empire. In fact, the general in charge of P.O.W camps in the Philippines at the end of the war was Korean, and he was hanged for his war crimes.
Wedge is probably right. Yen Jun, I was talking about Japanese troops in China. Gerry, they should have hanged the Japanese emperor.
Well, wasn’t the Empire of the Rising Sun forcing colonized people to participate in the war for the Emperor’s divine purposes? German Kaiser was exiled after losing WW1. Hitler killed himself. Musolini executed by shooting. Japan’s Emperor dodged all responsibilites. He wasn’t even exiled.
Even if you could argue the Japanese emperor was a puppet, countless people were blowing themselves up saying something like “Tenno Banzai.”
This tells me that the Japanese and the colonized people knew who they were fighting for forced or on their own wills. The Japanese Emperor. They should have hanged him.
“I do not defend Japanese war crimes, but I do like to point out that Koreans were a part of the Japanese empire. In fact, the general in charge of P.O.W camps in the Philippines at the end of the war was Korean, and he was hanged for his war crimes.” - Gerry Bevers
Yeah right, point to collaborators and call it Koreans are enthusiatic partners to the great asian co-prosperity empire. Brilliant deductions! You believe what you want to believe, Mr. Gerry Bevers.
Have you ever thought that if it wasn’t for Japan, there would be no Korean POW guards in Phillipines?
The camps weren’t run by Koreans, Gerry, it was the Japanese leaders and Japanese policy which ran the camps. The Korean guards were kept as mad guard dogs - just a poor clog in the wheel.
So they hung that Korean after the war, but isn’t it funny why Hirohito the Sun emperor wasn’t hanged? Instead, most of the hanged ones are the lowly ranked Koreans who were expendible I guess, while all the Japanese high rankers (except for Tojo) who started this all, got off scott free under the American occupation. Now compare that to the justice that the Europeans and the Jews got.
I recall no Nuremberg trials in Tokyo.
David
Many women do this out of choice. Yes they are in a tough spot and have little options but it is their decision at the end of the day.
But some women are actually slaves and do not have a choice. They are expected to make money for their owner. They would like nothing more than to run away but many are women from other countries and the mofia has some big connections with the cops.
Maybe this is one reason to legalize it. The ones that want to can and the ones who don’t don’t.
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Gerry, who is responsible for instituting abuses of WWII POW’s in South East Asia, including experiments with germ warfare? Korean collaborators who carried out the wishes of the Japanese policy or the Japanese military government itself? Gerry, yes, there were many Korean collaborators - that’s no secret. But funny that you never mention many Koreans who belonged to the exhiled provisional government in China. How do you come up with Korea was part of the Japanese Empire, when Korea as a country was blotted out of the records? Did that happen voluntarily?
Funny how when Gerry Bevers pops up, war crimes and Japanese colonialism in Korea inevitably become the subject of conversation.
This is way off topic of course, but the fact that there were Korean POW camp guards and commandants merely goes to show the old truism that the oppressed can very quickly become the oppressors. Take a look at the Kapos, the Jews who worked for the Nazis in the concentration camps. What they did was nasty, and you could call them race-betrayers if you want to go for an emotion-laden term like that (I tend to shy away from that kind of stuff), but the fact is that they did what they did not because the Nazis forced them too, but the Nazis created a system within which the only way they felt they could survive or thrive was to sell out.
I quote: “Throughout history, every oppressed group has been faced with members of their own group aiding their oppressors; selling their souls to their oppressors to gain personal favor for themselves.” This is from a report entitled “Retaliation In California Prisons and Jails By Guards” found at http://www.geocities.com/three.....risons.htm
How does that relate to Korea under the Japanese? You be the judge.
One question I do have though, and this is to Gerry directly. I get the impression that a lot of people here feel that you are somehow trying to make less bad the crimes of the Japanese. Perhaps if you were to state more clearly at the outset what it is in fact that you are trying to say, it would be helpful. These issues are very emotive, and it is hard to discuss these matters without all kinds of motives being attributed to all sides.
Mankyongdae,
WJK brought up Japan, not me. Also, you complain about Japan being off topic, but then you ask me to explain my views regarding Japan.
I am not trying to make “less bad” the crimes of the Japanese, but I am trying to correct the mistatements and exaggerations made about them.
I do not mind if people talk about Japanese war crimes; I just wish they would stick to the facts when they do, instead of making broad sweeping statements.
By the way, Mankyongdae, your post looks as if it is trying to make “less bad” the war crimes committed by the Koreans during the Pacific War?
“WJK brought up Japan, not me.”
Yes, you’re correct! If you check back I didn’t say you had brought it up, merely that wherever you appear the topic of conversation seems to turn to Japanese colonisation of Korea.
” Also, you complain about Japan being off topic, but then you ask me to explain my views regarding Japan.”
No, no complaint. Merely an observation that the topic had moved far from its origin. With the subject already where it is, I am happy to follow it through. Marmot is usually quite generous with giving us some leeway to discuss whatever.
“I am not trying to make ?€œless bad?€? the crimes of the Japanese, but I am trying to correct the mistatements and exaggerations made about them.”
And in a nutshell, what is your argument? If you were to write a book outlining your beliefs and arguments, what would go in the first paragraph?
“I do not mind if people talk about Japanese war crimes; I just wish they would stick to the facts when they do, instead of making broad sweeping statements.”
Well people in these fora do tend to make sweeping statement. It’s part of the medium. What is interesting is that you feel the need to ‘put people right about Japan’ a lot. Why do you think that is? Do you feel that Japan has been badly done by?
“By the way, Mankyongdae, your post looks as if it is trying to make ?€œless bad?€? the war crimes committed by the Koreans during the Pacific War?”
Really? Let me look back. I can’t see that in my post. Does anyone else see it? My opinion is that crimes are crimes. Whoever committed them. Did my point about the oppressed becoming the oppressors appear to be somehow exculpating of war crimes committed by Koreans? I hope not.
By the same token, though, I see a difference between war crimes committed by Koreans and “Japanese war crimes”. In the latter case the entire nation is responsible. Similarly, just because there were Kapos during World War II, it doesn’t make Jews into Nazis.
Yes Korea was part of Japan during World War II. But Koreans were not Japanese (despite the legal definition at the time). Sudetenland was part of Germany at the same time. Shall we call those Czechs Germans?
WJK:
I mis-read your post on internment of Westerners in China by Japanese during WW2. Apologies.
Mankyongdae’s point about Jewish Kapos is interesting. Thanks.
I recently came across an old book called The Fugu Plan, about a Japanese diplomat in East Europe who helped to give thousands of passports to Jewish, during the Nazi era, and they managed to escape and re-settle in China.
That Japanese man was probably prompted by the belief among some Japanese that they are one of the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel.
My point: there are only two races in this world - not white, black or yellow. Just good and bad people.
Yen Jun,
the longer I live on this earth the more convinced I become that there are not ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’. In fact, the more I become aware that even the best people can do the most horrible things under the right (wrong?) circumstances.
Without having read her work, I presume to link my growing convictions to Hannah Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’ concept.
Sure, I leave open the possiblity that some people are just much more inclined to doing hurt to others than most people are, but I think that the potential for great good and evil exists in all of us.
What practical outworking does that have in my life? It just means I am much more wary of people, even those that I know, since one never can be sure.
To attempt to bring the thread back to its origin - I don’t know if everyone has already stopped reading though - I liked eeyore (post 14)’s musing that 1997 could be likened to a ’summer of love’. I think studies will one day be done to see if divorces/break-ups/adultery/people leaving spouses for someone they’ve never met halfway around the world increased after that year.
That and the rate of net take-up has been so breathtakingly fast. I still remember when in 1995 I had to go to the computer studies department of my university and beg for an e-mail account. They didn’t want to give one to students who weren’t studying computers!
As for when those ?œ?????§‘ and others started their ‘littering’ campaign, I don’t know when it stopped but I sure as heck hope the current crackdown serves to end it, because I am sick of the site of those little cards lying all around the station.
Mankyongdae:
Thanks, I get where you are coming from, and agree with you. We gotta keep our mitts up, all the time.
“The army can be unemployed for 100 years, but not unprepared for A SINGLE DAY.” - a saying by Emperor Qianlong(??) at the National Palace Museum, TAipei.
I gotta take time out for a while - I hear the deadlines calling my name…
Asia by Blog - Month in Review
This is cross-posted at Winds of Change. Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Mondays and Thursdays (the latest edition is here). You can be notified by email when it is updated, just drop me an email at simon-[at]-simonworld-[dot]-mu-[dot…
Asia by Blog - Month in Review
This is cross-posted at Winds of Change. Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Mondays and Thursdays (the latest edition is here). You can be notified by email when it is updated, just drop me an email at simon-[at]-simonworld-[dot]-mu-[dot…
Simon’s E. Asia Overview PRC News: Sep 28/04
It’s time to have a look at East Asia and what’s been making the news in Asian blogs over the past month. We cover China (in depth), as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore et. al).
Simon’s E. Asia Overview PRC News: Sep 28/04
It’s time to have a look at East Asia and what’s been making the news in Asian blogs over the past month. We cover China (in depth), as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore et. al).
Simon’s E. Asia Overview PRC News: Sep 28/04
It’s time to have a look at East Asia and what’s been making the news in Asian blogs over the past month. We cover China (in depth), as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore et. al).
Simon’s E. Asia Overview PRC News: Sep 28/04
It’s time to have a look at East Asia and what’s been making the news in Asian blogs over the past month. We cover China (in depth), as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore et. al).
Eyes on Korea: 2004-09-29
NK Options; ROK in Iraq; S. Koreans helping N. Koreans produce nerve gas, S. Korean intellectual criticizes biased and unobjective U.S. understanding of N. Korea, S. Korean spooks for Kerry, N. Korean pressure cookers, the Great S. Korean prostitution …
Dear Mankyongdae:
Your comments display above average interest and insight into Uri Choson’s colonial history related to the traitorous Koreans who operated within many of the Japanese prison camps.
1. Exactly who was General Hong Sah-ik?
2. How many Koreans served in Hirohito’s military?
3. How many are listed in the Yasukuni Shrine?
4. Is it true that the majority of Koreans during WW2 actually considered the Chinese and Western Allies as their enemies?
5. Have you ever talked directly to the surviving elderly Koreans who actually lived in the Pacific War era?
6. Do you know where were the Jinsen POW camp, the Keijo POW camp or Kempeitai HQ?
Please try to answer the above questions without all the contemporary PC correct polemics or trying to dissect my questions as being somehow anti-Korean.
I strongly feel that knowing the truth will set your free intellectually!
Thank you.
MC Kang