Few years back, I talked to representatives from UNAIDS and UNDP who believed South Korea is on path to become the next Bangkok if changes aren’t made. A major problem is the reluctance of South Korean universities and high schools carrying out proper sex education programs. They’re often repulsed by the idea. In turn, safe sex isn’t one of the first things young South Koreans think about when the gerkin is about to sink an eagle. Should the young virgins want to take precautions, many also don’t know how to go about it.

Also, one of the more common causes of HIV/AIDS in South Korea is men becoming carriers of the virus from business trips to South East Asia, after which they infect their wives and their favorite bed-mates at room salons and whore houses throughout the Korean peninsula. For anyone who’s lived in South Korea long enough, it doesn’t take much to find men who’ve fornicated (aka “outsourced”) with the women of room salons. And finding a whore house or a massage parlor is no difficult task in Seoul.

There’s also the issue of South Korean infection rates remaining probably one of the lowest by far in Asia. Only a small number of South Koreans have gotten tested in the past, and the porous sex education doesn’t create the necessity in the minds of young South Koreans to get tested. Also, talks of the South Korean government controlling the stats aren’t unheard of.

More freedom requires greater responsibility. The latter is apparently difficult to come by when it comes to sex, even in South Korea.

Btw, it is good news, although my concern is no matter how much society is being open about sex, there still exists a double standard between men and women. Many Korean guys still care about that the woman (they are going to marry) had a serious boyfriend in her past or she had ever had sex. Women?€™s virginity is still the word for ethical judgment toward women.

“Respondents revealed gaps in Korea?€™s sex education, with only 36.8 percent saying such classes were helpful in improving their understanding of sex. Among students who found out about the birds and the bees from other sources, 58.5 percent of women fingered friends, and 55 percent of men the Internet.”