Incheon investigators raided three massage parlors in Yeongjong-do Airport New City, arresting one owner and booking the other two on charges of pimping.
But more importantly, by using credit card information acquired in the raids, investigators have assembled a list of 2,000 suspects they believe purchased the services of young women at the establishments. A regular massage costs 80,000 won, while a massage with a happy ending costs about twice as much.
If you paid 160,000 won, you’re on the police list.
Not surprisingly, many on the list are officials and employees of Incheon International Airport (including cops). Also on the list are employees of Korea Air and Asiana, the Yeongjong-do golf course, Korea Tourism Organization, and Incheon Urban Development Corporation. Not to be forgotten, the names of officials with design and construction companies connected with the Incheon Free Economic Zone and the expansion of Incheon International Airport were also on the list.
Prosecutors are now pondering what to do. To call in everyone on the list would take a lot of time, and Incheon prosecutors lack the means to investigate each and every case. And besides, with the massage parlors being put out of business, the goal of the sting — to root out prostitution — has been completed.
Kim Jong-ho, Incheon’s deputy district attorney, said there’s a number of ideas being suggested, including making the list public and putting the suspects into rehab programs. He said his office would deal with those on the list in a way that would awaken people to the issue of prostitution.
29 Comments
One point there seems suspicious — there were cops on the list? Who paid full price for sexual services?? Since when do cops ever have to pay for hookers…??
Someone will come up with a scheme to sell removal of names form this list. New goldmine discovered.
From
The problem with the system is that they just punish customers of prostitutes rather than rehabilitate them. They should search out the root causes of them committing the crime of visiting prostitutes, and work to resolve it. It is said that poverty is a motivating factor behind some crimes. I wonder what the motivation behind visiting prostitutes could be.
There must be some serious crimes that the Prosecutor’s Office could be looking into. Assuming that both parties are adults and freely entered into the transaction, what’s the beef? Preventing Prostitution and Human Trafficking. It’s not just a USFK job any more.
#4 They go to get their root greased.
Wait a tick, there are massage parlors that offer happy endings actually INSIDE the airport?
It seems interesting they actually pay with a credit card too.
Looks to me like someone is trying to get this swept under the rug.
Do you recall the foreign English teacher being arrested a couple of years ago because he used his credit card to pay for hookers?
If the cops really don’t know what to do, maybe they should call each and every suspect’s wife and ask they should press charges. Let them decide. After all, adultery is a crime in Korea.
Great idea Someguy.
“a number of ideas being suggested, including making the list public and putting the suspects into rehab programs” Yeah, why wait for a conviction….
What kind of “rehab program”?
michael,
How about desensitization therapy?
Actually, no. The “New City” is right outside the airport.
I should have probably said “rehab education,” i.e., a course where you learn that paying for sex is bad.
“desensitization therapy” LOL
I figured you didn’t mean like a 12-step program to stop having sex, Marmot.
Remember a few years ago when hardly anybody had or used credit cards? Dynamic Korea!
Incidentally, Korea has an abnormally-high rate of cash advance against these “credit cards”. Coincidence? I know I’ll be paying cash the next time I’m in the Airport New City getting my ashes hauled.
Gotta wonder why the massage parlors don’t install cash-advance machines in their lobbies.
Kimpo’s Int’l Terminal 1 used to have a two-poler under the upper deck. You could check in at the NWA counter two hours early, walk downstairs and get put in the proper mood for that trans-Pacific flight with special battleaxe service.
Regarding using credit cards at these establishments, I’d say toss them in the clink for stupidity.
I’d recommend they just use the credit card numbers and charge a five million won fine to all of those with charges of 160,000 won.
Those guilty of the offense are unlikely to complain about that new charge and the few who claim they paid for two people can come forward and have the fine removed.
I should have probably said “rehab education,” i.e., a course where you learn that paying for sex is bad.
Of course paying for sex is bad, but what can they do - they’re stuck out there on that island all day.
Many would disagree with that simplistic statement.
Hey morons, pay in cash!
“Many would disagree with that simplistic statement.”
Actually, it is always bad if you have to pay for something that you should be able to get for free.
ihbb, that was meant as a joke, in the same sense that SomeguyinKorea wrote above.
Didn’t know if you meant pathetic bad or bible-thumping fundie bad.
“Didn’t know if you meant pathetic bad or bible-thumping fundie bad.”
Is there a difference?
Anybody still remember the Korean middle school student who was being held hostage and prostituted against her will all last winter? Last month the “Police” in Korea let 797 men who raped her return to their roles as upstanding members of the community without punishment. I am sure they will toss at least one of the guys from this latest incident to the wolves though. Somebody has to pay right?
#23.
I know, that is so messed up.
I just hope they warned their wives, especially if they have young children.
Rehab programs? haha…Yo Joey! My friend’s got some friends in Jeju who got this hospital….
Difference being that the first is a reasonable observation, and second is the product of self-righteous, prosletyzing assholes who feel the need to enforce their prehistoric, prudish morality on the rest of society because they think a Great Magic Man in the Sky told them that sex is evil unless sanctioned and regulated by his magic.
Any more questions?
#26. Actually, the question wasn’t meant to be taken literally. It was a facetious remark.
ihbb, I meant ‘pitiable’ bad, in that these guys would have to pay for that which is given freely by others to others. Again, only kidding around - laugh or not, as you like, but there are no heavy moral messages intended in #16.
#28
Wasn’t it in Kelly’s Heroes that Clint Eastwood made the quip, “Sex is like water…There’s no point in paying for it because you can get it for free.”