From a Chosun Ilbo story on North Korean women making regular trips across the river to sell sex to Chinese villagers:
Sphere: Related Content또 이 같은 이유 때문에 최근 북한에서는 아들보다 딸을 더 선호한다고 한다. 이 여성은 “북조선 인구 비율은 여자가 많은데 여자들의 살림가치가 높아서 딸을 좋아한다”며 “북조선에서는 여자들이 없으면 못 벌어 먹으며 이 때문에 북조선 남자들은 집 지키는 ‘멍멍게’나 ‘낮전등’이라고 한다”고 말했다.
For reasons like this (selling North Korean girls to entertainment businesses in China), nowadays in North Korea, daughters are preferred over sons. According to the woman, “Women make up a large percentage of North Korea’s population, and women are valuable providers. In North Korea, a household can’t make a living without women, and because of this, North Korean men are called “barking dogs” or “floodlights” that guard the house.”
17 Comments
Up north women are selling themselves to survive. Here in the south, they’re selling themselves for designer goods.
Hard to decide which is more pitiable.
Sonagi, I want to commend you on your new (?) habit of running both original Korean text and English translation together in this and the following beef posting. It’s a great gift for those of us whose Korean is a bit rusty but who are still trying to keep it funtional. I could limp thru the Korean on my own, but having a crib sheet makes it much faster and surer, a great study aid. Thanks!
Dear Sonagi,
It’s been more than 20 years since I had the experinece of living the Korean life as a waeguk saram, so here’s one once-upon-a-time linguist who appreciates having the text in both languages as you have. Furthermore, I like your posts. Thanks very much for both!
Jeff Harris
And furthermore…..
Hasn’t it been predicted, if it already isn’t existent, that there exists a great disparity between the number of men and the number of woemn in certain age groups in China? In other words, there will be many more men than women in something like 2020?
I also enjoy the “crib sheet”. Your effort is appreciated, Sonagi.
Like everything is in North Korea, this is tragic.
Thanks for the compliments, friends. I figure any English speakers interested in Korea can read the KH and KT themselves, so we contributing bloggers can add valuable content by sourcing from other languages. I’m not as ambitious as the wonderfully niche-filling Korea Beat, who scans news portals and translates entire articles.
How wide spread is this? I’d imagine that it’s more prevalent in the border then in the entire country.
#1,
I have a lot more sympathy for a girl who’s selling her self for food rather then designer clothes. However, I’d say that most SK whores do it because they are under bondage from debts. I’d say that it’s the room salon and juicy girls who do it more for designer clothes. Do I frequent these establishments to know this? Nope. Let’s just say that I have more respect for women then you do.
That’s all result of chinese inferiority complex.
I agree. The latter have real choices. The former do not. The problem is the latter isn’t that they sell sex, but what they spend their money on. One of my favorite Chinese movies is “Durian, Durian,” about a young woman from northeastern China who is a sex worker in Hong Kong for several months before taking the loot back to her hometown, where she dreams of starting a business.
In the news this week was the suicide of DC madam Deborah Palfry, who couldn’t face going to prison again. None of the johns who used her service was charged and Vitter’s still in the Senate. What a crock of shite. Can someone explain to me again the logic of why I can legally have sex with ten men in one night, heck at one time even, but if any of them pays me, suddenly I’ve committed a crime. Banning prostitution might have made sense back when extramarital sex was against social mores, but those days are long gone.
Because you’re price-gouging. Sex for sex is ok, but sex for sex AND money?! That’s just wrong.
Also because the prostitution industry has a history of sexual slavery and exploitation etc etc blah blah the argument continues.
Back on the NK topic, when sons are indentured for 12 years or so in the army during their primary earning period, a daughter becomes a lot more attractive, prostitution or no.
Sonagi posted THAT in #9 and we’re already back on topic? What the hell! Surely we can get a little more mileage out of that. Can we get hardyandtiny over to this thread for a minute, please?
“Bring nine of your friends and have sex with Sonagi!! Tell your wife - fuck! BRING your wife. Pay her, don’t pay her, pay them both!! who the fuck cares!!!” and etc…
Okay, I’ll admit I was trying to liven up the thread. Wedge made a good observation, even if it was dry and on topic.
Really, how you figure that, WangKon936 ? I said both situations are pitiable. Here’s a dictionary. Try not to be such a retard next time.
# 14,
Second definition:
“evoking or deserving contemptuous pity; miserable; contemptible”
Which would imply a lack of respect from your end.
Why do posts on Korean women always lead to people whipping their dics out?
Why do posts regarding any women for that matter have the said effect?