The Hankyoreh reports on a Filipina in Dongducheon’s “American Alley” who is suing a 27-year-old soldier with 2ID for child support.
The 37-year-old Filipina, who came to Korea on an E6 entertainment visa and is now residing in Korea illegally, works in a local bread factory to support her 1-year-old child. Her lawsuit, launched in May, is demanding the soldier be named the father and pay 500,000 won a month in child support.
Explaining her case, she said she wants to make US soldiers realize that they mustn’t have sex with women and leave them without fulfilling their duties. She wants to do this, she said, because many US soldiers are doing just that.
The woman and GI met in September 2005. The Hani reports that she entered Korea as a performer and got work as a “juicy girl” employed at a club servicing US soldiers. She made US$600 a month, but the club was not the place where her “Korean Dream” could come true.
When she got to the club, she learned that it was a place of prostitution for GIs. She would even have to service Koreans looking for “2-cha” (i.e., sex). After about a month, she left the club, and drifted from job to job, including a stint at a food product factory, before meeting the GI. The two would live together, and she would have his son.
The soldier would get a US passport for his son, but in the meantime, he left the mother for another Filipina. Before he left, he gave her US$552 in child support. After she launched her lawsuit, the soldier left for the United States without saying a word on August 15. USFK has so far ignored her request for the father’s current address.
Her lawyer notes that under SOFA regulations, USFK must cooperate in civil issues, but that principle has never been applied in a case like this, and even if a Korean court rules that the father must pay support, they must go through child support proceedings in a US court.
About this, however, USFK said that as a personal issue, the matter needed to be settled in court through the US Embassy.
In a related piece, the Hani looks at the plight of the Filipina club girls of Dongducheon’s Bosan-dong “American Alley.”
37 Comments
good for her. i’d like to see the U.S. military start getting more involved in these cases. at the very least, pointing her in the right direction for civil suit and the procedures that entails.
Yes, she should be able to collect child support, but do you really think the korean media would have bothered with this story, if not for the anti american angle.
It is sad this sort of thing still happens. Though this guy had the shred of decency to get his son a passport and some money, and the rather arbitrary amount of $552 suggests it was all he had in his account. Did he apply for custody of the child? Maybe the mother went psycho and filled suit after he paid the 552$ thinking he had more… and he said “screw you bitch I’m goin’ home” its not so easy to judge in a case like this…
‘its not so easy to judge in a case like this…’ poster
BULLSHIT! it’s really easy; the guy needs to take care of his son. end of story.
1) So, Robert, what are the limits of blogging ethics in this case?
The amount of detail you imply the Korean language story provides means to me that in this case, it’s likely that GI Joe is in fact the father. I assume there’s a Korean birth certificate which names him as father?
Suggestion: publish the name of the father here, along with his unit of assignment in Korea, and see what happens. Could be the new unit of assignment (or his civilian address, if he separated from the Army) will “percolate up” to you from the vast blogosphere. Especially if any of the other English language Korea-oriented blogs pick up the story and it becomes more widely known.
Provide the name/stateside address to the mother’s lawyer in Korea; maybe the lawyer can then come up with a US lawyer local to the current US whereabouts of the father. Especially if funded by the small donations of thousands of outraged Hanky readers.
Who could fail to be moved by the appealing picture of that little boy in his mother’s arms. Of course, if it eventually turns out that junior doesn’t share any DNA with his “legal” father, I reckon I’d be a lot less sympathetic. But, if that’s the case I reckon the truth will eventually come out.
2) “…Her lawyer notes that under SOFA regulations, USFK must cooperate in civil issues, but that principle has never been applied in a case like this…”
Hard to believe this legal territory hasn’t been explored throughly before. If anyone knows the law and/or precedents I’d be interested in their opinion.
3) Pearl S. Buck foundation Korea may be able to help the mother:
http://pearlsbuck.or.kr/Eng/
Maybe somebody here could email the Hanky reporter in Korean, ask him to provid the foundation POC info to the mother. (I could find nothing about the story in the 19 Oct English language version, nor did I see any English language POC info, otherwise I’d email it myself).
Like this never happens in the Philippines? I know of literally dozens of cases where filipinas are left by their boyfriends, domestic and foreign, to raise their children the best they can on their own. I’m not saying that this guy was right but if this woman is 37 years old, she kinda knew what would happen. I’m sure that Korea was not the first place that she worked in a bar.
I’m inclined to agree with pawi, scary as that sounds, but with the caveat that the Hankyoreh is the last place on earth to go to for accurate and complete coverage of a case involving a U.S. soldier. We have no way of knowing what details or circumstances were omitted because they didn’t fit the theme of that series of articles.
How is that although millions of Filipino women have worked as “juicy girls” in and outside their country for the past few decades, each new generation of womenis so easily “tricked” into taking the job?
Do a genetic test. If the US soldier’s the father, make him pay child support. I had my own deadbeat dad and have no sympathy for such ‘fathers’.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Why is it no one is suggesting that at least some of the burden belongs to the Korean brokers who bring these women into Korea? Or the scum who imprision them? Or the Korean clients who frequent them?
My son was a member of the 2nd ID, stationed in Dongducheon. I teach English in Jeollanam-do. I would go several times a month to see him. We would go down-range and I met a good number of these women. Funny thing is, after the GI had to be on base, I would hide out in the shadows and watch the drunken Korean men crawl out of the woodwork and “Visit” these very same women…. No one in Korea complains about that…..
I am, however, in agreement that a DNA test be done, and IF the child belongs to an American GI, the woman and child need to be taken care of. The important word, however, is IF.
Echoing Slim, the Hani is the last place for any sort of balanced story, especially when it comes to GIs. So far we’re getting half the story.
If the child is indeed the GIs, he needs to pay child support, including back pay with interest. If not, the Hani should print a full retraction.
Paul H. — the Hani piece mentions the name of the soldier — I intentionally withheld it, not out of sympathy of the alleged bum, but because I really don’t want to fuck around with potential lawsuits against yours truly.
You changed your gravatar. Interesting choice, but I thought my Sleestak was more threatening than your multiracial gang of waegooknom.
If the child is his, he must pay. Absolutely.
Walk a mile in the guy’s shoes. Then post.
“the Hani piece mentions the name of the soldier”
Well, at least it’s nice to know that this time it isn’t Mr. ‘C’ or one of the employees of ‘S’ corporation.
Why did she get a baby?
Did she choose to get a baby? And did she have a consent from the real father of the baby?
I’ll quote Sonagi’s comment:
There is a logic in condemning married women more harshly in that sex with a married woman may result in pregnancy and the husband raising the biological child of another man unknowingly. Research using modern DNA data has found that up to 15% of children born in England have a different biological father than the man listed on the birth certificate. Male adultery also threatens women in a tangible way. A married man who fathers a child outside of marriage may be compelled to support that child financially, taking resources away from the legal family.
Who knows who’s the father of the baby.
I hear there was a unmarried foreign–maybe an American– millionaire who owned muultinational companies. He died for an accident and then was buried in the Philipines. He was a habitual haunter of the Philipines. After his burial, a dozen of pregnant Philipino girls appeared and asserted that he’s the father of the baby in her belly. His suite in the Philipines said that the dead man had not had so much interest in women, had not parted from him and had not met women privately. He rather liked adventures like hanggliding. But there were a dozen of pregnant women.
Feel sorry for writing harshly to her.
I think she’s more irresponsible than the father of her son and the alleged father may be the real father.
#8…You are dead on. All of the women coming on the entertainment visas know full well what job they are taking thanks to the coconut telegraph. Same as they know what awaits them if they take a similar job in their own country.
The same coconut telegraph has informed them that they can use the “I was tricked” story to gain sympathy from their customers in Korea, Japan or other countries where they go to work as prostitutes. They are taught early how to manipulate their customers both financially and emotionally.
You can’t really blame them though because this tactic works as evidenced by all of the stories in the media and the poor saps who believe them. Some of these girls can give an acting performance worthy of an Academy Award. The sympathy card is one of their biggest ploys. I’ve talked with girls in TD, Osan, Pyongtaek, Waegon and even ex-Korea vets now working in Makati that have all confirmed this. I know a couple others in Makati thinking of coming to Korea because they know the money is more than double what they can make at home doing the same thing. Once they get here, they’ll play the same “I was tricked” routine because it enables them to somewhat maintain their dignity with their new customers. It’s better than saying they came to Korea to be hookers. Again, you can’t blame them for doing this. Just because these women are uneducated doesn’t mean they are not smart.
Having said all this, if the guy in the story is the father, he needs to fulfill his responsibilities even though he may have been played like a $2 fiddle.
pawi,
I think more that him having to pay child support, he should have to take custody of his son. He can provide better than his wife. But then again, maybe he tried? Maybe the mother is just using the kid to get money from him? Maybe he is paying and the mother just wants MORE. Bottom line is I just don’t know.
The mother and most other juicy girls probably do come to Korea knowing full well what kind of work they will be doing. They don’t become hookers because they enjoy exchanging bodily fluids with and sucking off strange and mostly disgusting men. Prostitution is 3-D work, and these women leave their homelands and risk contracting STDs because they have limited prospects in poorer countries like the Philippines and Russia. Poverty sucks. And that’s why they suck. And no shit they’re manipulative. I suspect a lot of the johns treat these women shabbily, not to mention their Korean pimps, so the women need to be tough and smart to survive in a hostile environment. I’d love to buy these women a lunch and listen to their tragic and horrible stories of the motley bunch of men who pay for their services.
@17
Funny how that statistic came up when the newest article on my second favorite site (next to this one of course) deals with that exact thing.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/071019.html
Conclusion: that 15% is probably bunk
Sonagi, you’re taking all the romance out of buying sex.
‘poorer countries like the Philippines and Russia….’ sonagi
korea’s poor? i don’t think so.
For a rich country Korea certainly exports a disproportionate number of whores–can’t get away from the third world mindset and behavior?
Could be a number of reasons for it. Maybe they’re the unique ones who run contrary to Sonagi’s belief and “enjoy exchanging bodily fluids with and sucking off strange and mostly disgusting men.”
Anyway, with whores you’re paying them to leave.
@#24:
Korea is not poor. Russia and the Philippines are poor. That is why Russians and Filipinas come to Korea to work. Hope it’s all clear to you now.
@#22:
Notice how I used the phrasing “up to 15%,” reflecting the unreliability of the data. I checked out your link, which included the following text:
The median nonpaternity rate for the high-confidence group was a not-too-scandalous 1.7 percent, whereas the low-confidence group showed an unsurprisingly high rate of 29.8 percent — about what one might gather from watching a few weeks of Maury Povich. If you combine the first group with the can’t-conclude group, which showed a rate of 16.7 percent, you get a rate around 3.3 percent, or a ninth of the low-confidence rate. While Anderson cautions that there’s currently no way to figure out what percentage of total births are low- or high-confidence, and thus what a societywide nonpaternity rate might be, he does use figures from a paternity confidence study he conducted in Albuquerque to guess that the rate for that city as a whole would be under 4 percent.
Now there’s a problem with the way this data was compiled. The first and last statistics are self-selected and thus non-representative. The second, “can’t conclude” group, appears to be random and thus most representative of the population at large showed a rate of 16%. Combining statistics makes no sense because we do not know how representative each self-selected group is. The author himself uses the word “guess” in presenting his final conclusion that the non-paternity rate is around 4%,so obviously, he’s not confident of the reliability of his number crunching.
Ah, but I said, “15% is probably bunk”, indicating that the high figure of 15% is probably incorrect. Semantics is fun!
Here’s the paper the part of the article you cited talks about if you’re interested:
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/A/.....widepc.pdf
It’s stated that most of the studies for the “can’t conclude” group comes from second-hand sources or unpublished studies, and I’m not sure if the “can’t conclude” group would really be representative of the population.
In any case, the straight dope article references other studies that suggest a much lower cuckold rate.
I’m a bitter angry misanthrope, but I have a hard time believing that 1 out of 6 people are bastards. Well, actually I do and that figure’s probably low, but I’m talking about a different definition of “bastard” now.
So we’re in agreement that the high figure of 15% is possible but unlikely. I, too, have a hard time imagining that 1 out of every six people in my middle class social milleu are bastards. I teach in a Title I school where a majority of the student body is low SES; many of the students have complex and changing families. As the studies in your links note, paternity confidence is lower among unmarried fathers, and births to unmarried parents comprise 29% of all births in the US over the last few years, and the 1999 rate in Canada was 32%. The population of North America is so diverse I don’t think one general statistic is very informative.
The same holds true for life expectancy. Though you are not American, you might be interested in the “eight Americas”: http://www.news.harvard.edu/ga.....tancy.html
‘For a rich country Korea certainly exports a disproportionate number of whores–can’t get away from the third world mindset and behavior?’ movie star
and i’d bet my bottom dollar you’ve used plenty of those whores, movie star. a disproportionate number? care to give us a source?
lastly, ain’t it interesting that your common expat portrays himself as the savior of korean women while he casually refers to them as whores?
quotes from a movie star expat:
‘i rescue the korean woman.’
‘i treat the korean woman better than any korean man.’ expat
‘korean woman are whores.’ same expat
‘yes, my girlfriend/wife is korean.’ same expat
you can’t get any nastier or more contradictory than your common expat in korea.
ps then your phrase should have been ‘women from poor countries’
‘I’d love to buy these women a lunch and listen to their tragic and horrible stories of the motley bunch of men who pay for their services.’ sonagi
why wait for lunch? at least, you can ask the guys here for their side of the story. lol.
‘i’m mistaken for a movie star.’ cmm
Pawi’s reading comprehension affects his ability to make relevant comments and is really becoming a hindrance to this comment section. Can’t there be some kind of probation until he gets remedial help?
The USFK should just set these women up with a luxury apartment in Manila with all bills paid for life. What’s the difference? Justify the position, give her a chance - we give the scum of the earth free Cable TV and hot chicken sandwiches.
@31
what are you talking about? this is my first post on this thread.
@31
pawi, perhaps I said something in another post that made an impression on you enough that it’s still in your angry little head. Since you are making some attempt at using my quote (likely out of context if you even got the quote right) to try to make some point, why don’t you point me to my original post so that I can comment on my original meaning, context, etc. I’d hate for you to go on misunderstanding me, or by extension you misleading the other readers in my name.
No worries there, cmm. Pawi’s woeful reading comprehension and paraphrasing skills have been cited by more than one commenter.
Maybe the mother would not let the GI take the child and therefore hoping to force him to pay child support. Their are many factors to this story and yes we all feel bad for the child. The mother could have prevented the child from going with the father to the United States. Her greed for money made this happen. But before anyone can make any judgments they need to get both sides of the story.
Also you have to fault the Korean Gov’t for getting these women from poverish area’s in Asia to work for sex. The Korean society acts blind to the fact that human trafficking happens. All those club owners forcing women from Asia (different areas in Asia) to sell there bodies to US and local nationals (Koreans) there. Before the writer publishes a story like this he/she needs to write first about the things that happen in Korea that do not involve US service members he/she needs to focus on things like human trafficking and stop trying to steer the anti American crap like KOREANS love to do. (IDIOT)
Also Korea is a rich nation due to the fact that allot of US and other Nation companies are operating and hiring the local nationals (Koreans) there. Also that the US military presence there alone makes those companies have a sense of being safe. Korean military is ran down with old WWII equipment and could not sustain along time with your brothers and sisters up North. So before you start to write some Korean pride crap here get your facts right Sonagi.
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[...] girl week here at the ROK Drop as yet another story involving juicy girls has popped up. Via the Marmot come news that a juicy girl is suing a US soldier for child [...]