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'''Prostitution in South Korea''' is an illegal industry. Despite this, a report issued by the Korean Institute of Criminology in 2003 indicated that 20% of men in their 20s pay for sex at least four times a month, <ref>'Korea's crackdown culture' by David Scofield of the Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University </ref> 358,000 visiting prostitutes daily. <ref>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/14/MN19286.DTL</ref> According to The Korea Women's development Institute, the sex trade in Korea was estimated to amount to 14 trillion won ($13 billion) in 2007, roughly 1.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product <ref name=kwdi> </ref> whereas The Ministry of Gender and Family Equality estimates that it is around 4% of South Korea's GDP, with revenue exceeding $22 billion making it the country's fifth-largest industry and comparable to that of the agricultural and marine sectors. <ref> Kim, E. National Survey on Prostitution and its Economic Size. Seoul, Korean Institute of Criminology. 2002.</ref> The sex trade was said to involve some 94 million transactions in 2007, down from 170 million in 2002. The amount of money traded for prostitution was over 14 trillion won in 2002.<ref name=kwdi/>
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'''Prostitution in South Korea''' is illegal,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eap/135996.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313165452/http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eap/135996.htm|url-status=dead |archive-date=March 13, 2010|title=US State Department Human Rights Report 2009: Republic of Korea|publisher=U.S. Department of State}}</ref> but according to The Korea Women's Development Institute, the sex trade in Korea was estimated to amount to 14 ] ] (]13 billion) in 2007, roughly 1.6% of ] ].<ref name="kwdi"> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213182303/http://www2.kwdi.re.kr/kw_board/skin/news/view.jsp?bp_board=news&bp_bbsNo=181 |date=February 13, 2012 }}. KWDI: Korea Women's Development Institute</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.macleans.ca/2010/02/18/south-korea-takes-on-prostitution/ |title=South Korea takes on prostitution: The country's sex workers generate 1.6% of total GDP |work=McLean's |date=February 18, 2010 |author=Tom Henheffer |access-date=November 5, 2010 }}</ref> According to a survey conducted by the Department of Urology at the Korea University College of Medicine in 2015, 23.1% of males and 2.6% of females, aged 18–69, had sexual experience with a ].<ref>{{cite web |title= 첫 성경험 연령 22.8세…남성 15%만 성매매 경험 |url=https://news.nate.com/view/20150422n36383 |website=네이트뉴스 |access-date=February 8, 2019 |language=ko}}</ref>


The sex trade involved some 94 million transactions in 2007, down from 170 million in 2002. The number of prostitutes dropped by 18% to 269,000 during the same period. The amount of money traded for prostitution was over 14 trillion won, much less than 24 trillion won in 2002.<ref name=kwdi/> Despite legal sanctions and police crackdowns, prostitution continues to flourish in ], while sex workers continue to actively resist the state's activities.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://asiancorrespondent.com/54649/skorean-sex-workers-rally-against-police-crackdown-2/|title=S Korean sex workers rally against police crackdown. |agency=AP News |publisher=Asian Correspondent |date=May 17, 2011}}</ref>
In 2003 the Korean Institute of Criminology announced that 330,000 Korean women (1 out of every 25 over 20 years of age), were involved in prostitution (maech'un). In 2004, estimating that around 500,000 women were actively involved in the sex industry<ref>http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FE26Dg03.html</ref>, the Korean government stopped keeping figures. The Korean Feminist Association alleges that there are at least 800,000 <ref>{{cite web|url=http://japanese.joins.com/article/article.php?aid=37708&servcode=400&sectcode=400 |title=800,000 prostitutes in Korea(売買春産業の規模、少なくとも80万人)|publisher=] Japan |language=Japanese |date=2003-02-24 |accessdate=2008-08-29}}</ref> and Whasoon Byun and Jungim Hwang estimated around 1.5 millions were engaged, one fifth of the population aged between 15 to 29.<ref>Industrial Prostitution in South Korea WHASOON BYUN and JUNGIM HWANG, ed. HUSO YI </ref>


==History==
Prostitution in South Korea has a long and varied history. Since WWII and the Korean War, it has developed on an "industrial scale", involving women from numerous countries, in which exploitation and abuse, and corruption within officialdom, are widespread.
===Premodern era===
], women from outcast or slave families who were trained to provide entertainment, conversation, and sexual services to men of the upper class.]]
Before the modernization of Korea, there were no ]s, but a ] for the elite landholding classes performed sexual labor.<ref name="Cho103">{{cite book |last= Cho |first= Grace |title= Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VagzEDjnZpcC&pg=PA103 |publisher= ] |year=2008 |isbn= 978-0816652754 |page= 103}}</ref> Modernization eliminated the Korean caste system.<ref name="Cho103"/> The first brothels in Korea began to spread after the country first opened its port in 1876 through a diplomatic pact, causing ethnic quarters for Japanese migrants to sprout up in Busan, Wonsan and Incheon.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2880244 |title=The history of prostitution |publisher=joinsmsn.com |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323222533/http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2880244 |archive-date=March 23, 2012 }}</ref>


===1960s: US military===
==Historical perspective==
{{main|Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military}}
Male <ref>Kim, Young-Ja (1981) The Korean Namsadang. Drama Review, 15, 9–16. </ref> and female Prostitution has been a component of Korean culture for literally thousands of years but according to Hyung-Ki Choi, Deputy Director, Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center in Seoul and Huso Yi in the Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality, "Korean women have been treated as second-class citizens regardless of their social and familial positions" and subjects of discrimination throughout Korean history. Because of the segregated roles of male and females within the Confucian society, women as professionals have been limited to performing particular public functions as shamans, folk healers and 'entertainers of men' called kisaeng or sadangp'ae acting as prostitutes. <ref>Putting P'ansori on the Stage by Pihl, Marhsal R. Korean Journal 1991</ref>


From the 1960s until today US camp town prostitution has existed outside US military bases (for example outside ] and ]). This was the result of negotiation between the Korean government and the US military, involving prostitution for United States soldiers in camp towns surrounding the US military bases. The government registered the prostitutes, who were called ]es, and required them to carry medical certification.<ref name="Sang-Hun">{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/world/asia/08korea.html|title= Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases|newspaper=] |date=January 7, 2009 | first=Choe | last=Sang-Hun |access-date=July 13, 2009}}</ref><ref name="Moon 1997">{{cite book | last = Moon | first = Katharine H. S. | title= Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations | publisher=] | location=New York | year=1997 }}</ref><ref name="Shaffer 1999 499–502">{{cite journal | last = Shaffer | first = Robert | title= Book Review: Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations | journal= Journal of World History | volume = 10 | issue = 2 | pages=499–502 |year=1999 | doi = 10.1353/jwh.1999.0026 | s2cid = 143870604 }}</ref>
Almost without exception, these women were from lower and slave class families and social outcasts. Along with various arts, they also practised prostitution. <ref>Songs of the Kisaeng: Courtesan Poetry of the Last Korean Dynasty Translated by Constantine Contogenis & Wolhee Choe, 1997</ref><ref>International Encyclopedia of Sexuality, South Korea, The Kinsey Institute. Edited by Hyung-Ki Choi, M.D., Ph.D., and Huso Yi, Ph.D.</ref> and were later to became the foundation of male prostitution fantasies. According to Confucianism, woman is always placed lower than man. <ref>Woman’s Four Book by King Young-Jo</ref> The purity of family lineage, female virginity and sexual fidelity were and still are stressed, whereas men were and still are permitted access to prostitution and other forms of sexual explorations.


The US military police provided for the security in these US camp town prostitution sites, and detained the prostitutes who were thought to be ill, to prevent epidemics of ]s. This government involvement was in the past motivated in part by fears that the American military, which protected ] from ], would leave.<ref name="Sang-Hun"/><ref name="Moon 1997"/><ref name="Shaffer 1999 499–502"/> Though US officials publicly condemn prostitution, they are perceived as taking little action to prevent it, and some locals suggest that US Army authorities prefer having commercial sex services available to soldiers.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47556 |title=Prostitution Thrives with U.S. Military Presence |publisher=Inter Press Service |date=July 7, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808131720/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47556 |archive-date=August 8, 2009 }}</ref>
Korea culture has been very phallic oriented. Considered as sexually superior to females, sexual intercourse was not classically perceived as a mutual relationship but rather as a primitive release for the male. Korean sexual culture was created to satisfy strong and aggressive male sexual needs and was one in which women played a passive role. Hyung-Ki and Huso state that this concept entered into everyday sexual and marital relationships seriously distorting natural, intimate relationships between men and women due to sexual discrimination.<ref> Hyung-Ki Choi, M.D., Ph.D., and Huso Yi, Ph.D.</ref><ref>Chung-Hee Soh. 1998. Sexual customs in the Chosun Dynasty: The view of women and sexual culture. Seoul</ref>


Prostitutions are visited by American soldiers, Korean soldiers and Korean civilians. In the beginning most prostitutes were South Korean with minority of other women from Europe and Asia. Since the early 2000's most prostitutes were Filipina and Russian.
As a Chinese vassal state for much of its history, kongnyô or "tributary women" were sent to the Chinese emperors <ref>The Sextants of Beijing, Global Currents in Chinese History by Joanna Waley-Cohen, 2000</ref> and up until the Korean and Vietnam wars, prostitutes were provided by its military and rulers for its soldiers.<ref>http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=13820</ref> The Annuals of Chosen present a record of the anciet kings and their prostitutes. <ref>http://sillok.history.go.kr/main/main.jsp</ref>


The number of South Korean prostitutes who worked as sex providers for American soldiers and Korean soldiers was between 26,000 and 39,000. This number is according to the research on the number of checkup for Venereal diseases from 1953 to 1969 by professor Lee Young-hoon an economic professor at Seoul National University.<ref>{{cite web |title= "한국군‧미군 위안부에는 왜 분노하지 않는가" |date=2019-05-15 |url=https://mediawatch.kr/mobile/article.html?no=254009|quote= 1966년 보건사회통계연보 172P. 성병 검진 대상 여성이 39만1713명이었다는 사실을 확인 할 수 있다. 이는 당시 성매매산업 종사자 여성의 수를 파악하는 척도이기도 하다. 출처는 국가기록원. (1966 Health and Social Statistical Yearbook 172P. It can be confirmed that there were 391713 women who were tested for sexually transmitted diseases. This is also a measure of the number of women employed in the prostitution industry at that time. Source: National Archives.}}</ref> Surveys carried out the 1950s and 1960s suggest 60% of these prostitutes worked near U.S. military camps.{{sfn|Cho|2008|p=104}}{{sfn|Cho|2007|p=163}}{{sfn|Kim|2016|p=46}}{{sfn|Lie|1995|p=316}}{{sfn|Woo|2019|p=145}}
Noted American Presbyterian missionary and physician ], arriving two years after Korea was opened to the Western nations 1884 and instrumental in the lifting of the nation's anti-Christianity policy, documented in detail the existence, nature and problems of Korean prostitution in his papers and the existence of syphilis and gonorrhea spread by female performers, usually slaves, and the existence of male prostitutes.<ref>Things Korean: A Collection of Sketches and Anecdotes, Missionary and Diplomatic by Horace Newton Allen (1908)</ref>


Korean government(보건사회복지부) figures give 10,000-30,000 prostitutes servicing the U.N/U.S. military in the South Korea in 1954,<ref>{{cite news |title=甲午記者手帖(갑오기자수첩)에서 (3) 失職洋公主(실직양공주) |url=https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.nhn?articleId=1954122200209202007&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1954-12-22&officeId=00020&pageNo=2&printNo=9792&publishType=00020 |agency=네이버뉴스라이브러리 |publisher=](Dong-A Ilbo) |date=1954-12-22}}</ref> about 20,000 prostitutes in 1966,<ref>{{cite news |title=달러市場(시장) 生態(생태) (5) 洋公主(양공주)가버는 外貨(외화)만年間(연간)2百(백)40萬弗(만불) |url=https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.nhn?articleId=1966072300099203004&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1966-07-23&officeId=00009&pageNo=3&printNo=104&publishType=00020 |agency=네이버뉴스라이브러리 |issue=Maeil Business Newspaper |publisher=매일경제 |date=1966-07-23}}</ref> reducing to 13,000-14,000 in 1969.<ref>{{cite news |title=美減軍(미감군)의 안팎을 진단하는 特輯(특집)시리즈 (5) 不況(불황)이깔리는 基地村(기지촌) |url=https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.nhn?articleId=1970072900329203001&editNo=2&printCount=1&publishDate=1970-07-29&officeId=00032&pageNo=3&printNo=7635&publishType=00020 |agency=네이버뉴스라이브러리 |issue=The Kyunghyang Shinmun |publisher=] |date=1970-07-29}}</ref> reducing to 9,935 in 1977.<ref>{{cite news |title=박정희 전 대통령 '기지촌 여성 관리' 문건에 친필사인 결재 |url=https://www.polinews.co.kr/news/article.html?no=190425 |issue=2013–11–06 |publisher=폴리뉴스}}</ref>
Another early Presbyterian missionary of forty years experience, Archibald Campbell wrote, “In Korea. . . there was spiritual darkness until the gospel of Christ was brought in. Men sold their daughters, their sisters, and sometimes their wives into prostitution without a qualm of conscience." <ref>'History of the Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church U.S.A. 2 vols. Seoul: Chosen Mission 1934 (vol. 1); New York: Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations, UPCUSA, 1964 (vol. 2) by Rhodes, Harry A. and Archibald Campbell</ref><ref>The Seven Great “I Am’s” by Archibald Campbell</ref>


Since 2004, the majority of prostitutes have been Philippine or ] women. South Korean sex workers have become less numerous as Filipino and Russian women were a cheaper labor alternative.<ref name="DongaIlbo20100427">{{cite web|url=http://news.donga.com/3/all/20100427/27918516/1 |title=또 다른 양공주의 비극 |trans-title=Another tragedy |website=] |date=2010-04-27 |access-date=2013-04-08}}</ref><ref name=sisapress030729>{{cite news |title=6·25의 사생아 '양공주' 통곡 50년 전쟁 그리고 약소국의 아픈 상처 '양공주'. 6·25가 끝난 지 50년이나 흘렀지만, 분단과 전쟁의 희생양인 양공주는 아직도 민족사 한가운데에서 총성 없는 전쟁을 치르고 있다. |trans-title=Major conglomerates, new recruits increase by 10% than originally planned ... 14.5% increase next year|date=2003-07-29 |work=] |url=http://www.sisapress.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1864 |access-date=2013-04-09}}</ref> With the collapse of the ], thousands of Russian migrated to Korea to work as sex entertainers in Korean red light districts while thousand others forced were into prostitution for both American soldiers and Korean civilian men and soldiers.{{sfn|Soh|2008}} Since the mid-1990s, foreigners make up 80–85% of the women working at clubs near military bases.<ref name=Hankyoreh20090228>{{cite news |title= Human trafficking in S. Korea |date=2009-02-28 |work=] |url=http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/341437.html |access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref> ] not only brought Russian prostitutes for American and Korean soldiers but also brought in many Russian women through ]s with South Korean men.<ref name=Hankyoreh20090228 /> In 2005, Filipina and Russian women became common in many Korean red district and even accounted for 90 percent of all the prostitutes in U.S. military camp towns.{{sfn|Lee|2010|p=126}}
During Korea's colonialization by Japan, Korean women started entering Japan brothels soon after the 1905 Protectorate Treaty. Registration and the collection of taxes from them were used as policies to root prostitution and the spread of syphilis. <ref>Infectious Diseases and Medical Institutions in the Late Chosen Dynasty by Chang Duk Kee, Catholic University Medical College, Korea. Korean J Med Hist.    1995 Jun; 4(1): 1-10</ref>


===2000s===
The practise of impoverished families selling their daughters to become prostitutes through agents called continued up until at least World War II, as was the exploitation of women being misled about the true nature of the work they were being hired for. <ref>“The wife of Pak Won Sun of Chemulpo enticed a young girl from Song-do and kept her in a house of ill fame in Chemulpo. The girl was shocked when she found out the purpose of her betrayer, and made complaint to the Police Department. The Police arrested Park’s wife.” The Independent, Korea. 10/9/1896.</ref>
In 2003, the Korean ] announced that 260,000 women—1 of 25 of young Korean women—may be engaged in the sex industry. The Korea Women's Development Institute suggested that from 514,000 to 1.2 million Korean women participate in the prostitution industry.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1930662 |title=Korea's sex industry is major money earner|work=] English |date=February 6, 2003 |access-date=July 13, 2009}}</ref> A similar report by the Korean Institute of Criminology noted that 20% of men in their 20s pay for sex at least four times a month,<ref>{{cite news |author=David Scofield |date=September 25, 2004 |title=Korea's 'crackdown culture' - now it's brothels |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FI25Dg05.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040926005200/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FI25Dg05.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=September 26, 2004 |newspaper=Asia Times Online}}</ref> with 358,000 visiting prostitutes daily.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/14/MN19286.DTL|title=Changing attitude toward sex threatens South Korea / Growing promiscuity, lack of education may lead to increase in AIDS, experts say|date=March 14, 2003|work=San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref>


In 2004, the ] passed an anti-prostitution law (Special Law on Sex Trade 2004) prohibiting the buying and selling of sex and shutting down brothels.<ref name="smh07">{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/crackdown-on-sex-tourism/2007/09/20/1189881659706.html|title=South Korea gets tough on sex tourism|work=]|date=September 20, 2007}}</ref> Soon afterward, over 2,500 sex workers demonstrated in the streets to demand the repeal of the law, as they believed it threatened their livelihood.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Joo-Hyun, C. | year = 2005 | title = Intersectionality revealed: Sexual politics in post-IMF Korea | journal = Korea Journal | volume = 45 | issue = 3 | page = 105}}</ref> In 2006, the Ministry for Gender Equality, in an attempt to address the issue of demand for prostitutes, offered cash to companies whose male employees pledged not to pay for sex after office parties. The people responsible for this policy claimed that they want to put an end to a culture in which men get drunk at parties and go on to buy sex.<ref>{{cite news|title=S Koreans offered cash for no sex|work=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6209549.stm | date=December 26, 2006 | access-date=May 22, 2010}}</ref>
==US and UN Military Camptowns==
After the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945, prostitution flourished in the following decades especially providing sexual services for American military forces called "camptowns". They reached their maximum amount during the 1960s and helped bring in foreign currency to rebuild the Korean economy. 37,000 American troops remained in South Korea in 1953 and at each of the 99 bases were camptown brothels filled with over 27,000 women. In 40 years, over one million women worked in the military sex industry. Many were tricked into becoming prostitutes. <ref> THE WOMEN OUTSIDE by Orinne Takagi and Hye Jung Park</ref> U.S. military presence in Korean played a major role in expanding its prostitution industry. <ref>The Transformation of Sexual Work in 20th Century Korea by John Lie. Gender & Society, Vol. 9, No. 3, 310-327, 1995.</ref>


In 2007 the government announced that sex tourism by Koreans would be made illegal, as well as Korean women going abroad to sell sex. The courts prosecuted 35,000 ], 2.5 times higher than the number of those who were caught buying sex in 2003.<ref name="smh07"/> Meanwhile, enforcement is weak and corruption problematic; there is little evidence that new legislation has made much difference, the trade simply finding other ways to carry on its business.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101001000786|title=Sex trade still problem despite tough law|work=]|date=October 1, 2010}}</ref> However more men are being sent to "John School" for purchasing sex,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101017000415|title=Number of 'john school attendees' increasing |newspaper=] |date=October 18, 2010}}</ref> while a 2010 investigation suggested that 20% of seniors seek out sex workers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20091230000052|title=How seniors meet sexual needs|work=]|author=Song Sang-ho|date=March 30, 2010}}</ref>
According to Katharine Moon, a professor of political science at Wellesley College, "Camptown prostitution and related businesses on the Korean Peninsula contributed to nearly 25 percent of the Korean GNP. The Korean government supported the camptown brothels, hoping the industry would boost regional economies. Joong Ang Daily reported the claims of one such sex worker, Cheon Chang-suk, and reported that, "recent studies by scholars and nongovernmental agencies have suggested that the Korean government helped build and maintain the brothels after the Korean War".


==Range of services==
In the same article, Professor Lee Na-young from Chung-Ang University found the Korean government "regularly ran medical checkups, and set up programs to regulate sexually transmitted diseases at the camptown brothels" forcibly isolated and locking up in jails infected women. The women were are forcibly checked every two weeks for venereal disease, and regularly for H.I.V. The professor noted that the Korean government changed the local Tourism Promotion Act in 1961 to register camptowns as "special tourist businesses”, granting them free tax benefits and implied that the Korean government benefited from profits made through military prostitutes. <ref>Former sex workers in fight for compensation October 30, 2008 - http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2896741</ref>
Following the enactment of the Special Law in 2004, there was a crackdown on ]s; while many of the brothels in those areas were forced to close, the crackdown went as quickly as it came, with the result that prostitution was driven more underground but also became a more competitive business with lower prices and more services.{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}}


Red light districts in South Korea can compare to those of ] and ]. The four main red light districts in South Korea prior to the Special Law are ], ], and ] in ] and ] in ]. While not all of them are operating to full capacity, some still exist while being tolerated not only due to the vast amount of money that is involved in the business, but also in an attempt to control the sex industry.
In some camptowns, women were kidnapped by criminal gangs and coercive procurement such as fraudulent promises of well-paid employment and skills-training were used. Rape was used as an initiation to sexual labor and debt slavery was used to hold women. The kijich'on system was heavily regulated and sustained by US Military and Korean government, licensed by the Korea Special Tourist Association.<ref>South Korean Movements against Militarized Sexual Labor by Katharine H. S. Moon. Asian Survey, Vol. 39, No. 2, (Mar. - Apr., 1999), pp. 310-327 </ref> The Korean government also colluded with the Korean police to run both “comfort stations” for U.N. soldiers and its own military's comfort system” during the Korean War. 78 in Busan. Non-registered brothels numbered several times. <ref>“The Korean War and Recruiting Gender and Sexuality (Hankuk Chonjaengkwa Yosongsong-songui Tongwon).” by Yi, Imha. Study of History 14:107-48. </ref>


Other sexual services include 가택 마사지 (gataek massaji), an "in-call" massage where the customer would travel or meet at the masseuse's home or quarters; 키스방 (kiss bang), rooms where customers pay to ] and fondle women;<ref>{{cite news |url=http://rockitreports.com/seouls-kiss-bang-tongue-kissing-rooms/|title=Seoul's "Kiss Bang" Tongue Kissing Rooms|publisher=rockitreports.com}}</ref> and 출장 마사지 (chuljang massaji) or an "out-call" massage where the masseuse travels to the customer's place, love motel, hotel, or other agreed location.
Its army operated its own “military comfort system” during and after the Korean War <ref>'Globalization, Nation-State and Women’s Sexualities' by Kim, Eun-Shil. Women’s Studies Review 19: 29-46. Korean Women’s Institute, Ewha Womans University, 2002.</ref>, its regulation was not only due to concerns for soldiers’ health. It was to defend national security during the war against communism and as a “counter espionage policy”. <ref>Chosun Ilbo16 June, 1952)</ref> However, the Korean government also ran a brothel targetting high-ranking U.S. military to “pilfer U.S. military secrets” called the “Nangnang Club”. A "National Female Youth March" in 1953 (T’aehanysachngnnan ch’ongkwlgidaehoe) protested about the existence of 100,000 prostitutes and their effect on to Korean society. <ref>Dong-a Ilbo11 April, 1953</ref>


===Teen prostitution===
Camptown prostitution enabled South Korean to earn foreign currency without any start-up capital. In 1964, catering exclusively to American soldiers, they earned almost $10 million, when total exports were approximately $100 million. <ref>Han’guk Ilbo10 February 2004</ref> Just as the women in camptowns were congratulated as “personal ambassadors” and “patriots” earning dollars for the nation’s sake <ref>Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.- Korea Relations by Moon Katherine. Columbia University Press. 1997</ref>
According to a 2012 study by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 3% of ] have been exposed to prostitution, either as a buyer or a prostitute.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.mogef.go.kr/korea/view/policyGuide/policyGuide07_07_01.jsp?func=view&currentPage=0&key_type=&key=&search_start_date=&search_end_date=&class_id=0&idx=691646|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408222326/http://www.mogef.go.kr/korea/view/policyGuide/policyGuide07_07_01.jsp?func=view&currentPage=0&key_type=&key=&search_start_date=&search_end_date=&class_id=0&idx=691646|url-status=dead |archive-date=April 8, 2014|title=청소년 자료실(간행물발간자료실) _ 여성가족부}}</ref> There have been reported cases of runaway girls who sell sex over ], and live with "families" in ''jjimjilbang'', or ]s, with fellow runaway girls. According to United Voice for Eradication of Prostitution, these teen prostitutes are exposed to such crimes as ] and diseases as ]. ] is common, with over half of the girls counseled by the Voice returning to the sex trade, often because of ] from former ]s and ] from future husbands and families.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/skorea-secret-runaway-teen-prostitution-084457639.html|title=SKorea's secret: Runaway teen prostitution|first=Jennifer|last=Chang|publisher=Al Jazeera|location=Seoul|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115181012/http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/skorea-secret-runaway-teen-prostitution-084457639.html|archive-date=November 15, 2012}}</ref>


=== Bacchus Ladies ===
==Post-Korean War==
{{main article|Bacchus Ladies}}
In the 1970s, tourism, including sex tourism in South Korea, generated a significant proportion of Korea’s total foreign exchange income. Its government mobilized women as “raw materials for national economic growth". <ref>Sex Tourism in Asia: A Reflection of Political and Economic Inequality by Kim, Elaine H. Korean Women in Transition: At Home and Abroad,eds. Yu Eui-Young & Earl H. Phillips, Center for Korean-American and Korea Studies, UCLA.</ref> In 1971, the Tourism Promotion Law was revised and 119 "special districts" were revived. <ref>Sex Tourism in Asia: A Reflection of Political and Economic Inequality by Kim, Elaine H. Korean Women in Transition: At Home and Abroad, editors Yu Eui-Young & Earl H. Phillips, 127-44. Center for Korean-American and Korea Studies, UCLA. </ref>


In contrast to teen prostitution, women in their 50s, 60s, even their 70s called ] are engaged in prostitution in a park near the Jongno-3 subway station in the heart of Seoul.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |title=The Korean grandmothers who sell sex |date=June 10, 2014 |work=] |first=Lucy |last=Williamson |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27189951}}</ref>
Japanese sex tourism in Korea was popular based around ] parties which resulted in protests from Christians and feminists. <ref>http://www.newint.org/issue245/sex.htm</ref> In the 1980s and early 90s, Korea was one of the most popular destinations for sex tourism. Fake barber's shops, steambaths and noraebangs (karaoke room) provided prostitutes at a cheap price. <ref>Sex Tourism and Hegemony, why is sex tourism not abolished and who profits from sex tourism? http://www.mskj.or.jp/getsurei/shimakawa0001.html</ref> In the 1980s, Korean women's groups publicized the conditions of kijich'on women (Korean military prostitutes at the US camps) as victims of debt and objects of foreign domination. In her paper, Professor Katherine Moon states that the experience and suffering of the kijich'on in Korean society was identical to the earlier chongsindae or comfort women. Many were forced to work as prostitutes to support impoverished families or the university fees of their siblings. <ref>Chungmoo Choi, "Korean Women in a Culture of Inequality". Korea Briefing, Westview Press, 1992</ref>


==Sex trafficking==
Dr Hei-Soo Shin, a leader of the Chongsindae Movement, noted in 1991 that "Korea's economic miracle developed in tandem with and partly owing to the sex industry in which Korean business and government encouraged male employees to indulge." <ref>Hei Soo Shin, "Women's Sexual Services and Economic Development: The Political Economy of the Entertainment Industry and South Korean Development" Rutgers University, 1991</ref> At that time, 1.2 million women were estimated to be involved in providing sexual services of various forms.<ref>Women’s Sexual Services and Economic Development: The Political Economy of the Entertainment Industry and South Korean Dependent Development by Shin, Hei Soo. 1991. Dissertation of PhD in Sociology Program, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.</ref>
]]]
{{Main|Sex trafficking in South Korea}}
{{See also|Human trafficking in South Korea|Human rights in South Korea|Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military}}


Though as recently as 2004 the government received low marks on the issue,<ref name="atimes" /> in recent years the government has made significant strides in its enforcement efforts.<ref name="state18">{{cite web |title=Korea, Republic of 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report |url=https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2018/282685.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729141516/https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2018/282685.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 29, 2018 |website=U.S. Department of State |access-date=July 29, 2018}}</ref> Human trafficking was outlawed and penalties for prostitution increased;<ref name="atimes">{{cite news |url= http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FI25Dg05.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040926005200/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FI25Dg05.html |url-status= unfit |archive-date= September 26, 2004 | title=Korea's 'crackdown culture' - now it's brothels |author= David Scofield |date= September 25, 2004 |newspaper= Asia Times Online}}</ref> the 2004 ''Act on the Prevention of the Sex Trade and Protection of its Victims'' was passed, toughening penalties for traffickers, ending deportation of victims, and establishing a number of shelters for victims. As of 2005 there were 144 people serving jail time for human trafficking.
==Human trafficking==
{{seealso|Human rights in South Korea}}
South Korea is both a source and destination country for human trafficking. Females from countries of the former Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries , including minors<ref>International Sex Trafficking in Women in Korea: Its Causes, Consequences and Countermeasures Seol Dong-Hoo. AJWS Vol. 10 No. 2, 2004. pp. 7-47</ref> are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and sex slavery within South Korea<ref>Base Instincts by Donald Macintyre and Tong Duchon </ref><ref>http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46614.htm</ref> Brought into the country for prostitution by Korean organized crime, many of are tricked into thinking they will have a legitimate job. <ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020812-333899,00.html|title= Base Instincts|accessdate= |author= Donald Macintyre/Tongduchon |date= |publisher= TIME magazine }}</ref>. Female migrant workers recruited by Korean employment agencies come to the country to work in factories only later to deceived and forced into prostitution. <ref>{{cite web |url= http://peacemaking.co.kr/pds/view.php?code=e_pds&idxno=273&start=45&search=0&find=|title= Reality of Women Migrant Workers in South Korea|accessdate= |author= Lee Hyang Won|date= |year= |publisher= 평화만들기 ||language= |}}</ref> as the Korea Special Tourism Association (an association camptown owners near U.S. military bases)


A US Immigration official conceded in 2006 that "There's a highly organized logistical network between Korea and the United States with recruiters, brokers, intermediaries.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/06/MNGR1LGUQ41.DTL |title=Sex Trafficking |newspaper = ] | first=Meredith | last=May | date=October 19, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/c/a/2006/10/06/MNGR1LGUQ41.DTL |title=Sex Trafficking |format=Video |work=] |author=Deanne Fitzmaurice |author2=Dan Jung |access-date=July 11, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811062409/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2006%2F10%2F06%2FMNGR1LGUQ41.DTL&o=0 |archive-date=August 11, 2007 }}</ref>
Though as recently as 2001 the South Korean government was accused of not meeting the "minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, under the terms of the US Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act". Human trafficking was outlawed and penalties for prostitution increased<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FI25Dg05.html | title=Korea's 'crackdown culture' - now it's brothels |accessdate= |author= David Scofield |date=25|year=2004 |month= September |publisher= Asia Times|}}</ref>; the 2004 ''Act on the Prevention of the Sex Trade and Protection of its Victims'' was passed, toughening penalties for traffickers, ending deportation of victims, and establishing a number of shelters for victims. As of 2005 there were 144 people serving jail time for human trafficking. These Korean women and new forms of prostitution also get exported to the US.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/09/25/dong-a-ilbo-talks-with-korean-prostitutes-in-the-united-states/ |title=Marmot's Hole |accessdate=2008-01-01|}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=하루면 ‘미국의 밤’ 물들여|url=http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LS2D&mid=sec&sid1=102&sid2=257&oid=020&aid=0000368647 |publisher= Naver News |accessdate=2008-01-01|language=Korean|}}</ref>


A ] police spokesman said that about 90% of the department's 70–80 monthly arrests for prostitution involve Korean women and Los Angeles police estimates that there are 8,000 Korean prostitutes working in that city and its suburbs.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2739989 |title=Seoul worries about prostitutes' exodus to the U.S.|newspaper=] English|date=June 20, 2006 |access-date=July 13, 2009}}</ref> According to Timothy Lim, the customers of Korean prostitutes in foreign countries are overwhelmingly non-Korean men in massage parlours, while their customers through out-call services, room salons and hostess bars are often 90-100% Korean. This makes clear that demand for Korean women is driven not only by American men "thirsting" for exotic women, but also by Korean men, especially first generation immigrant men or non-immigrant businessmen.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lim |first1=Timothy |title=Migrant Korean Women in the US Commercial Sex Industry: An Examination of the Causes and Dynamics of Cross-Border Sexual Exploitation |journal=Journal of Research in Gender Studies |date=2014 |volume=4 |issue=1 |page=18 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265337359}} "My survey results bear this out: while clients of massage parlors tend to be overwhelming non-Korean, clients for outcall services, room salons, and hostess bars – a large part of the prostitution industry – are often 90 to 100 percent Korean. While this observation is not necessarily surprising, it makes it clear that demand for Korean women is not driven by white (Black or Latino) men in US “thirsting for an exotic Asian women,” but also by Korean men, especially first generation immigrants or non-immigrant businessmen. Indeed, my research indicates that the most important source of demand, at least since the late 1990s, is the Korean/Korean-American community in the United States"."</ref>
A US Immigration official conceded in 2006 that "There's a highly organized logistical network between Korea and the United States with recruiters, brokers, intermediaries, taxi drivers and madams".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/06/MNGR1LGUQ41.DTL |title=Sex Trafficking |publisher = ] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/c/a/2006/10/06/MNGR1LGUQ41.DTL |title="Sex Trafficking|format= Video |publisher = ] |author=Deanne Fitzmaurice |coauthors=Dan Jung |accessdate=2007-07-11|}}</ref> Korean women are alleged to be paying as much as $16,000 to be smuggled into the USA to work in brothels. <ref>Jim Kouri. Cops Shatter Korean Human Trafficking Ring. American Chronicle. 30 August 2005.</ref>


A ] report titled, "Trafficking in person's report: June 2008", states that in "March 2008, a joint operation between the AFP and DIAC broke up a syndicate in Sydney that allegedly trafficked South Korean women to a legal brothel and was earning more than $2.3 million a year. Police allege the syndicate recruited Korean women through deception about the conditions under which they would be employed, organized their entry into Australia under false pretenses, confiscated their travel documents, and forced them to work up to 20 hours a day in a legal Sydney brothel owned by the syndicate."<ref name="state.gov">{{cite web |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf |title=Trafficking in Person's report: June 2008 |publisher = ] }}</ref>
In ] and ] of the United States, many Korean women were arrested for prostitution. ] said that Since 2006, 90% of prostitutes arrested every month in ] are Koreans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://japanese.joins.com/article/article.php?aid=77026&servcode=400&sectcode=400&p_no=&comment_gr=article_77026&pn=6&o= |title=8,000 Korean prostitutes in USA (韓国人女性8000人、米国で‘遠征売春’)|publisher=] Japan |language=Japanese |date=2006-06-21 |accessdate=2008-07-30}}</ref>


The US State Department report also states that the South Korean government "fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/07/120_114401.html|title=Korean team in US for consultations on human trafficking concerns|date=July 4, 2012|newspaper=The Korea Times}}</ref> In 2012, the government continued law enforcement efforts against sex trafficking, and signed MOUs for the Employment Placement System (EPS) with five additional countries and conducted numerous anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. The Korean National Police Agency also cooperated with foreign law enforcement agencies to crack down on human smuggling networks.
The US State Department 2008 report titled, "Trafficking in person's report: June 2008," states that in "March 2008, a joint operation between the AFP and DIAC broke up a syndicate in Sydney that allegedly trafficked South Korean women to a legal brothel and was earning more than $2.3 million a year. Police allege the syndicate recruited Korean women through deception about the conditions under which they would be employed, organized their entry into Australia under false pretenses, confiscated their travel documents, and forced them to work up to 20 hours a day in a legal Sydney brothel owned by the syndicate."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf |title=Trafficking in Person's report: June 2008. |publisher = ] }}</ref>


The ] ] ranks South Korea as a ']' country.<ref name="state18" />
The report also states that "the South Korean government fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Over the last year, the government continued law enforcement efforts against sex trafficking, and signed MOUs for the Employment Placement System (EPS) with five additional countries and conducted numerous anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. The Korean National Police Agency cooperated with foreign law enforcement agencies to crack down on human smuggling networks that have been known to traffic women for sexual exploitation.


==Foreign prostitutes in South Korea==
These efforts with respect for sex trafficking have not been matched by investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of labor trafficking occurring within South Korea’s large foreign labor force. Efforts to reduce demand for child sex tourism, in light of the scale of the problem, would be enhanced by law enforcement efforts to investigate Korean nationals who sexually exploit children abroad. South Korean men continue to be a significant source of demand for child sex tourism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf |title=Trafficking in Person's report: June 2008. |publisher = ] }}</ref>
South Korea is both a source and destination country for ].<ref name="state.gov"/><ref>{{cite magazine |url= http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020812-333899,00.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040113050006/http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020812-333899,00.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= January 13, 2004|title= Base Instincts |author= Donald Macintyre/Tongduchon |date= August 5, 2002|magazine=] |access-date= May 22, 2010}}</ref><ref name="peacemaking">{{cite web|url= http://peacemaking.co.kr/pds/view.php?code=e_pds&idxno=273&start=45&search=0&find=|title= Reality of Women Migrant Workers in South Korea|author= Lee Hyang Won|publisher= Peacemaking|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101018145645/http://peacemaking.co.kr/pds/view.php?code=e_pds&idxno=273&start=45&search=0&find=|archive-date= October 18, 2010|df= mdy-all}}</ref> The agencies use high salaries to lure young girls to go to Korea and once they arrive they are forced to work as ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/SouthKorea.htm|title=Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - ROK (South Korea)|publisher=gvnet.com}}</ref>


===China===
In August 2002, US based Navy Times reported Senior Superintendent Kim Kang-ja, director of the Women and Juvenile Division of the Korean National Police Agency, state that all South Korean police and other officials concerned with prostitution were engaged in bribery and receiving sexual favors including group sex with minors.<ref>http://www.navytimes.com/legacy/new/0-292236-535181.php</ref><ref>http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FE26Dg03.html</ref> Sex workers tell of being forced to perform sex for fear of suffering numerous violations including beatings, the withholding of payments, illegal confinement, forced labor, the over consumption of drink ratios, forced them to sexually serve police officers <ref>Hankyoreh Daily 12/2/2004</ref> and having their every move monitored. <ref>Sex and denial in South Korea by David Scofield, former lecturer at the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, currently conducting post-graduate research at the School of East Asian Studies.</ref>. It is reported that it was "virtually impossible to find people who had not been sexually abused by the owners of the clubs or the managers of the entertainment-promotion agencies" <ref>Munhwa Daily, February 14, 2003</ref>
Trafficking in Persons Report of the U.S. State Department has mentioned in many occasions that Chinese women are engaged in prostitution in South Korea. The report describes that they are issued a formal visa and are engaged in sexual services and sometimes they are sold as international marriage bribes and are now sexual workers.<ref>{{cite web |title=2019 Trafficking in Persons Report: Republic of Korea |date=June 20, 2019 |issue=U.S. Department of State |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report-2/republic-of-korea/}}</ref>
According to MINISTRY OF JUSTICE REPUBLIC OF KOREA as of 2016,There are 212,115 Chinese women (]) staying in Korea.<ref>{{cite web |title=2016 출입국외국인정책통계연보 |url=http://www.immigration.go.kr/immigration/1570/subview.do?enc=Zm5jdDF8QEB8JTJGYmJzJTJGaW1taWdyYXRpb24lMkYyMjglMkYzMjc1NjUlMkZhcnRjbFZpZXcuZG8lM0ZwYXNzd29yZCUzRCUyNnJnc0JnbmRlU3RyJTNEJTI2YmJzQ2xTZXElM0QlMjZyZ3NFbmRkZVN0ciUzRCUyNmlzVmlld01pbmUlM0RmYWxzZSUyNnBhZ2UlM0QxJTI2YmJzT3BlbldyZFNlcSUzRCUyNnNyY2hDb2x1bW4lM0QlMjZzcmNoV3JkJTNEJTI2 |website=법무부 출입국 외국인정책본부 |publisher=MINISTRY OF JUSTICE. REPUBLIC OF KOREA}}</ref> According to “Survey for the migrant women employed in the entertainment business in Korea” presented by ], it is reported that the largest number of women engaged in commercial sex for South Korean men can be found in Han Chinese women.
<ref>{{cite web |title=외국인 여성 성매매 실태 및 제도 개선방안 연구 |volume=11-1383000-000191-01 |issue=Ministry of Gender Equality & Family.(설동훈·한건수·정경숙·박수미·조진경·박혜정) |url=http://www.prism.go.kr/homepage/researchCommon/retrieveResearchDetailPopup.do;jsessionid=83FAE48959EB63AEE751502356593BE0.node02?research_id=1382000-201100019}}</ref>


According to MBC, the public broadcasting company of Korea, 80% of massage businesses in South Korea correspond to commercial sex establishments where Chinese women work. In 2012, 240 Chinese women were arrested for having prostituted in the massage parlors in Korea.<ref>{{cite news |title= '정통마사지'라더니‥퇴폐·불법 성매매 영업 |url=https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2012/nwdesk/article/3192770_30413.html |publisher=] |date=November 29, 2012}}</ref> The South Korean newspaper “The Dong-a Ilbo” reveals that sex workers in the so-called “휴게텔” are all composed of Chinese women (Han Chinese and Ethnic Korean Chinese) except “Gangnam” area.<ref>{{cite news |title=월 1000만 원 거뜬 고학력 콜걸들 경찰 비호 속 007式 성매매 |url=https://weekly.donga.com/List/3/all/11/90858/1 |publisher=] |date=October 18, 2010}}</ref> As of 2018, female students from China staying in South Korea reach 41,957<ref>{{cite web |title=KOSIS 유학생관련현황 |url=http://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=111&tblId=DT_1B040A14 |publisher=통계청 |ref=2018년}}</ref> and many of them are caught by the press and reported as sexual workers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chinese students caught for prostitution |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/10/117_96898.html |work=The Korea Times |date=October 18, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=국내 유명 대학 中 유학생들, 유흥업소로 몰려 |url=http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=2561892 |publisher=KBS NEWS |date=2012-11-03}}</ref>
==Korean prostitution in Japan==
Park Jae-wan, a lawmaker of the largest opposition Grand National Party claimed that about 30,000 South Koreans, male and female, amongst 40,000 to 60,000 illegal South Korean emigrants, were working as prostitutes in Japan <ref>http://e4u.ybmsisa.com/FreeZone/AlZzaStudy/NewsEng/view.asp?wdate=2007-06-19&page=15</ref><ref>http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200703/29/eng20070329_361903.html</ref> including college students and housewives, on holiday visas. <ref>http://news.naver.com/hotissue/ranking_read.php?date=20071120§ion_id=102&ranking_type=popular_day&office_id=028&article_id=0000220617&seq=1</ref>


Chinese women are engaged in prostitution through the country of South Korea such as ],<ref>{{cite news |title=Man Arrested for Pimping Foreign Prostitutes at Hotel |url=https://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/03/113_40772.html |work=The Korea Times}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=외국인 여성 고용 다방 성매매 기승 연수에만 10여곳 |url=http://www.kyeongin.com/main/view.php?key=761452 |publisher=경인일보}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=위장결혼 중국인 여성 등 성매매로 돈벌이 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=003&aid=0003247283 |agency=Naver new |publisher=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title="여기 커피 한 잔?"…티켓다방의 진실 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=079&aid=0002397022 |agency=Naver news |publisher=CBS NEWS}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=중국인 고용 티켓다방 성매매 업주 등 6명 검거 |url=http://www.joongboo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=317248 |publisher=중부일보}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=학교 주변 유해업소 단속…165명 입건 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=056&aid=0010015373 |agency=Naver news |publisher=KBS NEWS}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=부천원미署, 마사지업소 차려 성매매 알선한 40대男 구속 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=421&aid=0001131907 |agency=Naver news |publisher=뉴스1코리아}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=파주署, 위장결혼 브로커 등 검거 |url=http://www.hyundaiilbo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=36661 |publisher=현대일보}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=의정부, 중국인여성 불법성매매 확산 |url=http://www.joongboo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=272715 |publisher=중부일보 |date=2008-06-09}}</ref>
==Trafficking within Korea==
],<ref>{{cite news |title= "5분 만에 '2차' 얘기…" 낯뜨거운 다문화거리 |url=https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1001600977&plink=OLDURL |publisher=SBS NEWS}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=외국인 고용해 벽으로 위장한 밀실서 성매매 |url=https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0103_201312111345455455?ems=13365 |publisher=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=중국인 여성고용 휴게텔 업주 영장 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=003&aid=0002822237 |agency=Naver new |publisher=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=당진署, 중국인 여성고용 성매매한 업주 검거 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=421&aid=0001332811 |publisher=뉴스1코리아}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=유사 성행위 알선 업주·중국인종업원 검거 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=003&aid=0004926252 |agency=Naver news |publisher=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title="성매매 거부하면 굶겨" 한국·태국·중국 여성들 감금 못된짓 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=005&aid=0000653375 |agency=Naver news |publisher=국민일보}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=아산署, 불법체류 외국인 고용 성매매알선 업주 검거 |url=https://www.anewsa.com/detail.php?number=954100&thread=09r02 |publisher=Asia new agency |date=January 13, 2016}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=대구서 中여성 100여명 불법취업시킨 업자 적발 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=143&aid=0000077086 |publisher=국민일보 |date=November 5, 2007}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=성매매 포기한 중국여성 감금,야산에 유기 |url=https://news.v.daum.net/v/20160509094117283 |agency=Daum news |publisher=국민일보}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=중국 여성 위장결혼 알선 후 임금 빼앗아 |url=http://www.imaeil.com/sub_news/sub_news_view.php?news_id=13539&yy=2003 |publisher=매일신문}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=중국여성 고용해 성매매 알선한 중국인 업주 검거 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=004&oid=421&aid=0000468301 |agency=Naver news |publisher=뉴스1코리아}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=광양경찰, 불법 성매매 영업하던 마사지 업주 검거 |url=http://www.nspna.com/news/?mode=view&newsid=95573 |publisher=NSP통신}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=외국인여성 고용 성매매 알선 협의 6명 검거 |url=http://www.gnnews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=271856 |publisher=]}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite news |title=강원경찰, 성매매 사범 103명 적발 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=001&aid=0002844536 |publisher=]}}</ref> ]<ref>{{cite news |title=이주여성에 성매매 알선한 마사지업소 적발 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=003&aid=0003363333 |agency=Naver news |publisher=]}}</ref> and ].<ref>{{cite news |title=단란주점 불법취업 중국인.업주 붙잡아 |url=http://www.ijejutoday.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=82785 |publisher=제주투데이}}</ref> Chinese women engaged in prostitution practice their commercial sex not only in the cities but also in the rural areas of which the administrative unit corresponds to town and township.<ref>{{cite news |title= 작은 시골 마을에 둥지 튼 中 성매매조직 |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=104&oid=022&aid=0003087391 |publisher=] |date=August 17, 2016}}</ref>
<ref>International Organization for Migration, “Traffickers Make Money through Humanitarian Crises,” Trafficking in Migrants, no. 19 (July 1999).</ref>
Following decades of agricultural disasters and the failure of social, economic, and political policies,100,000 of North Koreans have attempted to leave the country where they have become vulnerable to criminal trafficking networks. The border areas are a hub for gangs who abduct or coerce women into prostitution, sex slavery and labor exploitation. With increases in mobility and industrialization, agricultural life is less attractive to women. It is not uncommon for corrupt border guards and government officials in North Korea to assist the traffickers.


===Thai===
Women are leaving fully expectant of selling themselves in order to survive, others are being abducted or duped into sexual exploitation, female children are still being sold to traffickers by their parents. Women, feeling insecure and in desperate situations in Korea are easily coerced into marriage or prostitution. <ref> Human Rights Watch Report, “The Invisible Exodus: North Koreans in the People’s Republic of China,” November 2002</ref> <ref>Amnesty International, “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Persecuting the Starving: The Plight of North Koreans Fleeing to China,” 15 December 2000</ref> The situation is made worst following the repeal of protective laws and given the government of North Korea does not recognize that the problem of trafficking of persons exists.<ref>http://www.korea-dpr.com/faq.htm</ref>
According to the Justice Ministry, increasing numbers of Thai women are drawn to illegal "massage work" in the ROK. It estimates that the number of illegal Thai residents soared from 68,449 in 2017 to 122,192 in August 2018. Of the 60,000 who are women, some 50,000 are believed to be working in massage parlors, some of them fronts for prostitution. The owner of one Thai massage parlor in ] said, "Even if I try to run a legitimate business, I have no idea what happens in the room between a client and a masseuse who wants to make more money." Massage parlors are illegal in Korea unless operated by blind people, but around 50,000 offer foot massage, sports massage, and acupressure. They employ some 300,000 workers.<ref>{{cite news |title=More than 10,000 Thais deported from South Korea for overstaying their visa |url=http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30357754 |access-date=November 5, 2018 |work=The Nation |date=November 2, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Chosunilbo-20181105">{{cite news |last1=Seung-jae |first1=Kim |title=Thousands of Illegal Thai Workers Flood Korea |url=http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/11/05/2018110501251.html |access-date=November 5, 2018 |work=The Chosunilbo|date=November 5, 2018}}</ref>


===Ukrainian===
==Modern Prostitution==
A report dated 2002 and released in 2003 asserted that Ukrainian sex-workers were the second largest group of foreign women involved into prostitution outside the US military bases in ].<ref name="Hughes">{{cite web|url=https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/203275.pdf|title=Trafficking in Women From Ukraine|last1=Hughes|first1=Donna M.|authorlink1=Donna M. Hughes|last2=Denisova|first2=Tatyana|year=2002|page=11|website=ojp.gov}}</ref>
The Women’s Studies Center of Ewha Woman’s University found in 1991, that 44.7% of Korean men had their first sexual experiences with a female prostitute, 55.4% answered that prostitution should be allowed to prevent rape and 25.6% were in favor of its legal regulation. <ref>A study of married adults’ sexuality consciousness and attitudes. Korea Research Institute for Culture and Sexuality Report , Chin, K. N., Y. J. Lee, S. J. Park, E. I. Song, & S. R. Kim. 1997.</ref> In 2003 survey, The Korean Times found 20 % of Korean men aged 20 to 64 pay for some kind of sexual encounter once a week. <ref>Korea Times, Feb 11, 2003</ref>. Culturally, infidelity is seen a characteristic of masculinity accounting for the increase in the growth of the sex industry. <ref>'Assuming Manhood: Prostitution and Patriotic Passion in Korea' by Cheng, Sealing. East Asia: An international Quarterly, 18(4), 2002. </ref>


===Russian===
According to the Institute of Migration the modern Korean sex industry has its roots in the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), when legalized, regulated and developed nationwide. Although a licensed industry ceased to exist, it transformed into an unlicensed but very well-organized trade involving both Korean and foreign women including victims of human trafficking.<ref>'A Review of Data on Trafficking in the Republic of Korea' by former IOM Chief of Mission, Seoul Dr June Lee</ref> The US State Department, classified South Korea as one of 23 countries which failed to meet the minimum standards for eliminating sex industry trafficking under the terms of the US 'Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act'<ref>http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/10492.pdf</ref> in July 2001.
Between January 2000 and March 2001, approximately 6,000 Russian women entered Korea through Busan port and Gimpo. In 2000, 3,064 Russians entered South Korea on E-6 visas, 2,927 of them women (Jhoty, 2001)<ref>{{citation|last1=Territo|first1=Leonard|last2=Kirkham|first2=George|title=International Sex Trafficking of Women & Children: Understanding the Global Epidemic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0aiWVfPiakC|year=2009|publisher=Looseleaf Law Publications|isbn=978-1-932777-86-4|page=}}</ref>


==South Korean sex tourists in foreign countries==
Prostitutes still work in brothels that do little to conceal their activity, other in more sophisticated settings such as "room salon" or a "hostess bar", referred to in Korean as "noraejujeom" or "danlanjujeom". These are venues catering to groups of middle-aged businessmen often on company expenses. No sex takes place on the premises but negotiations for further services are often made elsewhere. Following the establishment of the 'Special Law on Prostitution', new forms of prostitution have started in Korea such as;


===China===
* Bangseokjips (방석집), in which small apartment in residential areas are rented where clients visit for sexual services, <ref>http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LS2D&mid=sec&sid1=102&sid2=257&oid=020&aid=0000368647</ref>
During the Autumn symposium held at Sinyang Humanities Hall of ] organized by Korean Association of Women's Studies, Jung Jae-won, a senior researcher of Institute for Gender Research of ] presented the survey results regarding current state of purchase of sexual services practiced by Korean men abroad. According to the survey presentation regarding “international expansion of Korean-type sex industry and commercial sex culture,” Korean men buy sex with Chinese prostitutes all over China.<ref>{{cite news |title= |url=http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201111210005185&code=940202 |agency=The Kyunghyang Shinmun(경향신문) |publisher=정재원 |date=November 21, 2011}}</ref>
* “Show rooms” (쇼방) or “ddeok bars” where women dance on a stage and males select them by the numbers they wear after which they have sex
* Ticket coffee shops
* Meetings in bathhouses or (jiimjiibang)
* Daeddalbangs (대딸방) which are massage parlors where nude or semi-nude college-aged girls offer sexual services, the name originating from the merging of 대 (an abbreviation of 대학교 or university) and 딸 (an abbreviation of 딸딸 or masturbation)
* low priced "Doll rooms” where men enter a room to have sex with a life-size doll to avoid the possibility of breaking the law
* Wonjo gyoje, or "compensated dating" with older men <ref>Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation: Korea", Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.</ref>
* Street-level prostitution exists for the poor
* Highway prostitution for truck drivers
* Women taxi drivers exist who provide additional sexual services<ref>Assuming Manhood: Prostitution and Patriotic Passions in Korea by Cheng Sea-ling. Asia: A Quarterly Journal, 18, 4, Winter, 40-78</ref>
* call girls services in city downtowns (보도방), which take introduction fees and act as middlemen.


It is estimated that there are more than 100 brothels (KTV) exclusively for South Korean men in ] of China, which is the example of this city only. The survey shows that some brothel(KTV) for Korean men has each 150-300 Chinese women engaged in commercial sex. It is reported that a brothel(KTV) of ] where South Korean men are regular customers has more than 500 Chinese prostitutes.<ref>{{cite news |title=한국 남성 해외 성구매 심각…법조치 필요 |url=http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=2391001 |agency=KBS NEWS |publisher=정재원 |date=November 19, 2011}}</ref>
According to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, there were 40,123 so-called singing-room and room salons, about 3,000 steambaths, barber shops, 535 massage par lors, a total number of 43,658 establishments. The unofficial count is expected to be higher. 29% of the college age sex workers report that the biggest reason for becoming prostitutes was to pay for tuition fees, 25% wanted more spending money, 47% said they just wanted to make money quickly and had an urgent need.<ref>http://www.bizplace.co.kr/sesports/content/content_view.html?seq_no=6184&b_code=b_content6</ref>


In 2007 it was reported that there were 33 online web sites linking Korean men to Chinese prostitutes. Many Korean men have used sex tour in groups with friends and co-workers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Overseas sex trade spreads online |url=https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=108&oid=044&aid=0000063781 |agency=Naver news |work=]|date=April 4, 2007}}</ref> In 2013, the Korea Tourism Association filed a complaint with the police against some Internet site for arranging sex service by Chinese prostitutes for Korean men in China.<ref>{{cite web |title=한국 남성의 해외 성매매 관광과 법적 대응방안 모색 |url=http://kupa.korea.ac.kr/kulri/materials/KoreaPaper.do?mode=download&articleNo=72995&attachNo=55929&totalNoticeYn=&totalBoardNo= |website=Korea University Legal Research Institute |publisher=박혜진 |year=2013|access-date=June 1, 2013}}</ref>
Massage parlors offering sexual services sometimes distinguish themselves from legitimate parlors by advertising with the word "]", sometimes with large neon signs. Following the enactment of the Special Law in 2004, there was a crackdown on red-light districts. A move many thought was more toward releasing real estate for residential development than striking a blow against prostitution.<ref>Sex and denial in South Korea by David Scofield</ref> While many of the brothels in those areas were forced to close, the crackdown came as quickly as it went. Prostitution was driven more underground but also became a more competitive business with lower prices and more services{{Fact|date=January 2008}}. Well-known redlight districts are full of "glass houses", where girls wait for customers in small rooms with curtains. "Call Girls" are a major portion of prostitution in Korea, sexual services usually taking place at hotels.


According to the 'Center for Women's Human Rights' , Korean high school students have bought Chinese prostitutes for sex while on a school field trip to China.<ref>{{cite web |title=불편한 진실 성매매 시장과 수요 |url=http://web.khu.ac.kr/~happyou/img/guidebook.pdf |website=Kyung Hee University,WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE OF KOREA |publisher=Center for Women`s Human Rights |access-date=December 1, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=MBC PD수첩 "중국 수학여행 성매매 더 있었다" |url=http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?art_id=200710011733531 |agency=The Kyunghyang Shinmun(경향신문) |publisher=] |date=October 1, 2007}}</ref>
In 1996 Korean police arrested staff and members of the Korea Special Tourism Association who had brought in women from foreign countries on government issued entertainment visas (E-6), charging commission fees from venue owners at US Military camptowns, forging contracts of employment, and them forced them to engage in prostitution <ref>Gyeonggido Jiyeok Seong Maemae Siltae Josa Mit Jeongchaek Daean Yeongu (Survey of Prostitution in Gyeonggi Province and the Anti-prostitution Policy Research) by Kang Ok-Kyung, Kim Hyun Sun, and Jeon Su-Kyung (2001). Dongducheon: Saewoomtuh the Center for Prostitute Women.</ref><ref>Hankyoreh Weekly, July 17, 2002</ref> The Korean Police acknowledged that E-6 visas were "nothing more than a cover for prostitution". Foreign women, as "Juicy Girls" were considered "essential to the survival of the military camptown business" as part of an arrangement that the Korean government are just as culpable at the US Military. <ref>The Natashas by Victor Malarek. Arcade Publishing, 2004</ref> The recruitment agencies are committing illegal acts and do not have the permission of their government to be engaged in such business.


South Korean men continue to be a major source of demand for child sex tourism in China.<ref>{{cite web |title=2019 Trafficking in Persons Report: Republic of Korea |date=June 20, 2019 |issue=U.S. Department of State |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report-2/republic-of-korea/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Sexual Exploitation |url=https://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2007/06/137_4755.html |work=The Korea Times |date=June 14, 2007}}</ref>
In 2004, thousands came together in protests about the closure of brothels in Korea. 15 Korean sex workers began a hunger strike <ref>Korean sex trade 'victims' strike for rights by Sealing Cheng, Rockefeller post-doctoral fellow in the Program for the Study of Sexuality, Gender, Health, and Human Rights at Columbia University </ref> in November of that year which end in January 2005 and in November 2005, the Suwon Supreme Court ruled the Daeddalbang massage parlors offering sexual services and staffed by female students to be legal. <ref>http://www.bizplace.co.kr/sesports/content/content_view.html?seq_no=6184&b_code=b_content6</ref> and nine former South Korean prostitutes filed lawsuits against their pimps seeking punitive damages in a landmark legal case due to the failure of their pimps to pay out advances of as much as 10 million won ($8,400). The women say they were lured into prostitution under the age of 18 and are suffering emotional distress.<ref>http://chinadaily.cn/en/doc/2004-01/07/content_296559.htm</ref>


===Southeast Asia===
In ], The Ministry for Gender Equality, in an attempt to address the issue of demand for prostitutes among, offered cash to companies whose male employees pledged not to pay for sex after office parties.<ref>{{cite news|title=S Koreans offered cash for no sex|publisher= BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6209549.stm |}}</ref>
South Korean men continue to be a major source of demand for child sex tourism in both Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.<ref>Trafficking in Persons Report 2017
By Office of the Undersecretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Ri</ref> Child prostitutes in Southeast Asian countries were reportedly patronized mainly by South Korean men, who outstrip Japanese and Chinese as the most numerous sex tourists in the region, with the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand mainly seeing South Korean men using child prostitutes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/01/30/2013013001376.html|newspaper=] (English Edition) |title=Koreans 'Biggest Clients of Prostitutes in Southeast Asia'}}</ref>


==Korean prostitutes in foreign countries==
The United States Embassy in Korea stated that, "The domestic crackdown on prostitution may have decreased the demand for commercial sexual exploitation in Korea, but it has caused an increase in the number of Korean women and girls moving abroad for commercial sexual exploitation." <ref>http://seoul.usembassy.gov/060508rok.html</ref>
The South Korean government has expressed concern over its citizens engaging in prostitution in foreign countries like Australia and the United States.


===Australia===
==Child prostitution==
Many South Korean women are trafficked to Australia to work as prostitutes with more than a thousand Korean women in the Australian sex industry.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.news.com.au/national/koreas-sex-call-dob-in-our-prostitutes/story-e6frfkvr-1226263465040 |date=February 6, 2012 |title=Korea's sex call - dob in our prostitutes |publisher=News.Com.Au}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Lee Hyo-sik |date=November 14, 2011 |title=Over 1,000 Korean women are prostitutes in Australia |newspaper=The Korea Times |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/11/117_98737.html}}</ref>
The non-governmental organization (NGO) Korean Women’s House reports an average of 100,000 runaway children and youths per year, many of whom are employed in entertainment establishments for adults and are sexually exploited.<ref> Ecpat Global Monitoring Report on the status of action against commercial sexual exploitation of children in South Korea </ref>


===United States===
In a report published in the Korea Times, about 20% of teenage prostitutes in Pusan began working when they were under 14. The Pusan Metropolitan Police Agency stated that the motivation of between 31 to 36% was to sell sex for a living, many have run away from home. Others chose to prostitute themselves to make money to buy fashion goods. 1.2% began prostitution under the age of 12, 17.6% between the ages of 13 and 14 and 58.8% between the ages of 15 and 16. They received between 50,000-150,000 won per prostitution job ($35 to $105). On February 10, 2006, Chung Ah-young of The Korea Times wrote that 1 out of 5 prostitutes begin sex trade under age of 14.
Thousands of South Korean women are trafficked to the United States to work as prostitutes in massage parlors.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Totiyapungprasert|first1=Priscilla|title=How The Massage Parlor Industry Is Sex Trafficking Thousands Of Immigrant Women|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/sex-trafficking-in-massage-parlors-exploits-immigrant-women-a-new-report-details-how-7939423|website=Bustle|access-date=April 3, 2018|language=en}}</ref> American authorities arrested hundreds of Korean women for prostitution in the five years leading up to 2011, with the 2008 Korea-US Visa Waiver Program leading to an additional increase in the number of Korean prostitutes in America.<ref>{{cite news |author=Noyeol Kim |date=September 27, 2011 |url=http://www.voicesofny.org/2011/09/korean-prostitution-in-the-us-out-of-control/ |title=Korean prostitution in the US is out of control|publisher=Voices of NY}} translated by Heesook Choi from {{cite news |date=September 20, 2011 |title=빗장 풀린 원정 성매매 |newspaper=The Korea Times |url=http://www.koreatimes.com/article/685231}}</ref> The number of people who operate with trafficking rackets to ship Korean women into the sex trade in America reaches into the thousands.<ref>{{cite news |author=Sharon Cohen |agency=Associated Press |title=Authorities trying to crack Korean prostitution network |date=September 23, 1986 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19860923&id=4MIxAAAAIBAJ&pg=6817,5104138 |newspaper=Lawrence Journal-World |page=6}}</ref>


===China and Taiwan===
Of the men using the girls, office workers accounted for 30.6% and 22.9% were independent business owners, 82.9% of the transactions were arranged via the Internet.<ref>Chung Ah-young. Korea Times, February 10, 2006</ref>
Korean prostitutes worked in ] during the Japanese colonial period.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Journal/ArticleDetail/3458744|title=Reconsidering Prostitution under the Japanese Occupation |journal=The Review of Korean Studies|volume=17|issue=1|pages=115–157|date=June 2014|author=Jungwon JIN}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://tao.wordpedia.com/show_pdf.ashx?sess=x0dvc1552mzevwn1puxh4cnc&file_name=JO00000369_17-3_107-149&file_type=r |title=Standing in the Gap of Society: Korean Prostitutes in Colonial Taiwan |author=Jungwon JIN |journal=Taiwan Historical Research |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=107–149 |date=September 2010 |access-date=February 26, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304041241/http://tao.wordpedia.com/show_pdf.ashx?sess=x0dvc1552mzevwn1puxh4cnc&file_name=JO00000369_17-3_107-149&file_type=r |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref>


A ring of South Korean prostitutes, composed of 21 Korean women ranging in age from 24 to 37, serving Chinese men was busted in Macau in 2015.<ref>{{cite news|last=Chung|first=Hyun-chae|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/02/116_171925.html |title=Korean prostitution gang working in Macau nabbed |newspaper=The Korea Times|date=January 18, 2015<!-- 16:46-->|access-date=September 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://macaudailytimes.com.mo/files/pdf2015/2295-2015-04-21.pdf|title=Police bust large Korean prostitution ring|page=3|date=April 21, 2015 |newspaper=Macau Daily Times |access-date=January 20, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date= April 21, 2015 |title=Police bust large Korean prostitution ring |url=http://macaudailytimes.com.mo/crime-police-bust-large-korean-prostitution-ring.html |newspaper=Macau Daily Times }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Yang Pa |date=June 15, 2015 |title=South Korean prostitution ring busted in Macau |url=http://www.rokitreports.com/the-sex-industry-in-korea/south-korean-prostitution-ring-busted-in-macau/ |newspaper=ROKIT }}</ref>
In another report by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, among teenage female prostitutes; 11.7% were 14 years old, 17.1% were 15 years old, 30% were 16 years old and 15.8% were 17 years old. 8 girls were under the age of 13. 40.8% of their male clients were in their 20s, 43.6% were in their 30s, 12.7% were in their 40s and 1.1% were over 50.<ref>Continuum Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality</ref> The numbers of child prostitutes is unknown and has been grossly exagerated in the past <ref>Korea Must Counter Foreign Reports on Child Prostitution by Moon Gwang-lip. The Korea Times Wednesday, September 8, 2004</ref>


Some Korean women wear kimonos while working as prostitutes in Macau.<ref>{{cite web |title=中부호 상대 원정 성매매 적발…"日여성 인기에 기모노 차림" |url=https://news.naver.com/main/hotissue/read.nhn?mid=hot&sid1=102&cid=1011835&iid=3470145&oid=008&aid=0003529612&ptype=021 |website=Naver |access-date=August 19, 2018 |language=ko |date=August 23, 2015| trans-title=Middle Code Officer Exploits Prostitution ... "Kimono dressed in a popular female day"}}</ref>
Child Rights, a nongovernment organization whose aim is to eradicate child prostitution in South Korea found that there are approximately 300,000 children in sexual servitude. In a report to UN Special Session Geneva about 'Victims of Child Prostitution Living in Shelters and Rehabilitation Institution Managed, Licensed or Supervised by the State' Child Rights found victims of child prostitution were further punished and abused. A quarter of sexual crime victims are children. Over 50 % of criminal charges of child prostitution and child sexual abuse are dismissed by Korean judges <ref>http://www.child-rights.net/peace.html</ref> <ref>Moonwha Ilbo: July 29, 2000</ref>


===Japan===
The United States Embassy in Korea states that a "growing number of Korean men continue to travel to the Taiwan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia for child sex tourism".<ref>Lee, Kyung-Eun Youth Sex Protection Division, National Commission on Youth. The Youth Sex Protection Policy in Korea. International Symposium: Conditions and Countermeasures to Overseas Child and Youth Sex Tourism by Korean Men. 31 October 2005.</ref>
In 2013, police broke up a racket trafficking women to Japan from Korea. In 2014, it was reported that websites promoting South Korean prostitutes in Japan have been blocked within South Korea by the government.
Korea's government has never prosecuted a Korean national for child sex tourism not has it ratified the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.<ref>http://seoul.usembassy.gov/060508rok.html</ref> The South Korean and US government are now colluding to forbidding US child sex tourists from entering Korea and Korea child sex offenders from entering the US. <ref>American Sex Offenders Denied Entry to Korea by Park Si-soo. Korea Times, 2008-05-08</ref>

==Transsexual and Male prostitution==
Korea also has a long history of male and transvestite prostitution including those amongst the chajewhi, or “little-brother attendants” of the nobility, and the ] performing artists, <ref>'Pacific Homosexualities' by Stephen O. Murray. AuthorHouse, 2002</ref> especially the ppriri, or "newcomers", and midong, or "beautiful boys", who played the penetrated sex roles in their performances and were male prostitutes for the rural ruling class<ref>Nanshoku: Homosexuality, Gender, and the Social Order in Tokugawa Japan by Gary Leupp, 1995</ref>.

According to Kim Keun-bae, a former namsadang performer, some senior performers made extra income by letting their male lovers sleep with the servants in the villages where the troup was performing, an opinion that is supported by Song Sokha of the Society of Korean Studies (Chindanhakoe) who wrote that the namsadang were troupes of performers whose chief purpose was to earn money as boy prostitutes from the Yi Dynasty, direct;y imitating the highly organized groups of lower-class female prostitute-entertainers. The system continued up until the early 20th century. <ref>'The flower boys of Sila (hwarang)' by Richard Rutt, Asian Homosexuality, Garland, 1992.</ref><ref>'Homosexuality in ancient and modern Korea' by Young-Gwan Kim, & Sok-Ja Hahn
Culture, Health & Sexuality, January–February 2006; 8(1): 59–65 </ref>

Many members of the rural ruling class maintained boys for sexual purposes.

==Prostitution in Korean Popular Culture==
Documentary:

* Camp Arirang.1995. (Directed by Diana S. Lee and Grace Yoonkyung Lee), featuring a 50 year old Korean ex-sex worker at a government subsidized camptown for U.S. airforce personnel and the experience of the fatherless mixed-race children of the sex workers.

Movies:

Both male and under-age female modern prostitution have featured in contemporary cinema and released internationally, e.g.

* 'No Regret' (Huhwihaji anha) (2006) by Hee-il Leesong about a male orphan, forced to leave the orphanage at the mandatory 18 years old who finds himself unemployed and becomes a male prostitute at a host bar in Seoul where where straight men sleep with rent-boys.
* 'Naughty Girls' (Dasepo sonyo) (2006) by Je-yong Lee which features school age prostitution.
* ']' (2003) by director Kim Ki Duk about Jae-Young, an amateur school girl prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin solicits for her.
* ']' (색즉시공, Saekjeuk shigong) (2002) by Yoon Je-kyoon, which involved jokes about college boys selling themselves to middle age women.

Novels:

* ] : A Novel of Korea by Ahn Junghyo (January 1990) in which following the American invasion a young boy called Mansik watches his mother raped by soldiers, shunned by other villagers and seeking work as a prostitute to feed his siblings.


==See also== ==See also==
* ]
* The Construction of U.S. Camptown Prostitution in South Korea: Transformation and Resistance by Na Young Lee, Ph.D., 2006
* ]
* A Study of Industrial Prostitution by Byun W., & J. Hwang. Women’s Studies Forum , 15:211-230 1999.
* International Women in South Korea's Sex Industry: A New Commodity Frontier by Joon K. Kim‌ and May Fu‌. Asian Survey May/June 2008, Vol. 48, No. 3, Pages 492–513
* Sexual Slavery in Korea by Matsui Yayori and Lora Sharnoff. University of Nebraska Press, 'Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies', Vol. 2, No. 1, (Spring, 1977), pp. 22-30
* South Korean Movements against Militarized Sexual Labor by Katharine H. S. Moon. University of California Press 'Asian Survey', Vol. 39, No. 2, (Mar. - Apr., 1999), pp. 310-327
* Korea Church Women United (KCWU), Lisaeng Tourism: A Nation-wide Survey Report on Conditions in Four Areas: Seoul, Pusan, Cheju, Kyongu, Research Issue Material, no. 3. (Seoul, 1984)
* J.T. Takagi and Hye Jung Park, The Women Outside, documentary (New York: Third World Newsreel, 1995)
* International Sex Traffickingin Women in Korea: Its Causes, Consequences and Countermeasures. Seol Dong-Hoon. AJWS Vol. 10 No. 2, 2004. pp. 7-47


==References== ==References==
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==External links== ==External links==
* {{cite web |last1=Lankov |first1=Andrei |title=The Dawn of Modern Korea: Buying and Selling of Sex |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2008/07/165_26554.html |website=The Korea Times |access-date=February 24, 2019 |language=en |date=June 26, 2008}}
*{{cite news|author=Sealing Cheng |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FL22Dg01.html |title=Korean sex trade 'victims' strike for rights| publisher=The Asia Times |date=2004-12-22 |accessdate=2007-07-11|}}
*{{cite news|author=David Scofield |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FE26Dg03.html |title=Sex and denial in South Korea |publisher=The Asia Times |date=2004-05-26 |accessdate=2007-07-11|}} *{{cite news |url=http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6870 |title=Thousands of Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery For US Servicemen in South Korea |publisher=Feminist Daily News Wire |date=September 9, 2002 |access-date=July 11, 2007 }}
*{{cite news|url=http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=6870 |title=Thousands of Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery For US Servicemen in South Korea |publisher=Feminist Daily News Wire |date=2002-09-09 |accessdate=2007-07-11|}} *{{cite news|author=William H. McMichael |url=http://www.navytimes.com/legacy/new/0-292236-535181.php |title=Sex slaves |newspaper=] |date=August 12, 2002 |access-date=July 11, 2007}}
* Asia Monitor Resource Center 1999
*{{cite news|author=William H. McMichael |url=http://www.navytimes.com/legacy/new/0-292236-535181.php |title=Sex slaves |publisher=] |date=2002-08-12 |accessdate=2007-07-11|}}
* . University of Pennsylvania Press 2010
*{{cite news|author=Donald MacIntyre |url=http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020812-333899,00.html |title=Base Instincts |publisher= ]|2002-08-05|accessdate=2007-07-11|}}
<!-- * Timothy C. Lim (July 6, 2006). .{{Unreliable source |date=September 2016 |reason=Article says: "THIS IS A WORKING DRAFT; Do not cite or circulate without author's permission"}} -->
*
* Timothy C. Lim and Karam Yoo (2006).
*
* Cheng S. ''Violence Against Women'' 14(3) 2008 359-63]
*{{cite news|author=David Scofield |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FE26Dg03.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040604173712/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FE26Dg03.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=June 4, 2004 |title=Sex and denial in South Korea |newspaper=Asia Times Online |date=May 26, 2004 |access-date=July 11, 2007}}
*{{cite news|author=Sealing Cheng |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FL22Dg01.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041225032308/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FL22Dg01.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=December 25, 2004 |title=Korean sex trade 'victims' strike for rights| newspaper=Asia Times Online |date=December 22, 2004 |access-date=July 11, 2007}}
*{{cite magazine|author=Donald MacIntyre |url=http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020812-333899,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040113050006/http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501020812-333899,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 13, 2004 |title=Base Instincts |magazine= ]|date=August 5, 2002|access-date=July 11, 2007}}
*Cheng S. "Changing Lives, Changing Selves: 'Trafficked' Filipina Entertainers in Korea", ''Anthropology in Action'' 2002. Vol 9 (1): 13–20.
*{{cite news |author=Casey Lartigue Jr. |url=http://eng.cfe.org/mboard/bbsDetail.asp?cid=mn2007713123749&idx=1985 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104010759/http://eng.cfe.org/mboard/bbsDetail.asp?cid=mn2007713123749&idx=1985 |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 4, 2011 |title=Yes: Prohibition is worse than the 'crime' |publisher=] |date=June 30, 2011 }}


{{Asia in topic|Prostitution in}} {{Asia in topic|Prostitution in}}

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Latest revision as of 14:51, 18 December 2024

Prostitution in South Korea is illegal, but according to The Korea Women's Development Institute, the sex trade in Korea was estimated to amount to 14 trillion South Korean won ($13 billion) in 2007, roughly 1.6% of the nation's GDP. According to a survey conducted by the Department of Urology at the Korea University College of Medicine in 2015, 23.1% of males and 2.6% of females, aged 18–69, had sexual experience with a prostitute.

The sex trade involved some 94 million transactions in 2007, down from 170 million in 2002. The number of prostitutes dropped by 18% to 269,000 during the same period. The amount of money traded for prostitution was over 14 trillion won, much less than 24 trillion won in 2002. Despite legal sanctions and police crackdowns, prostitution continues to flourish in South Korea, while sex workers continue to actively resist the state's activities.

History

Premodern era

Kisaeng, women from outcast or slave families who were trained to provide entertainment, conversation, and sexual services to men of the upper class.

Before the modernization of Korea, there were no brothels, but a caste of the women for the elite landholding classes performed sexual labor. Modernization eliminated the Korean caste system. The first brothels in Korea began to spread after the country first opened its port in 1876 through a diplomatic pact, causing ethnic quarters for Japanese migrants to sprout up in Busan, Wonsan and Incheon.

1960s: US military

Main article: Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military

From the 1960s until today US camp town prostitution has existed outside US military bases (for example outside Camp Casey and Camp Stanley). This was the result of negotiation between the Korean government and the US military, involving prostitution for United States soldiers in camp towns surrounding the US military bases. The government registered the prostitutes, who were called Western princesses, and required them to carry medical certification.

The US military police provided for the security in these US camp town prostitution sites, and detained the prostitutes who were thought to be ill, to prevent epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases. This government involvement was in the past motivated in part by fears that the American military, which protected South Korea from North Korea, would leave. Though US officials publicly condemn prostitution, they are perceived as taking little action to prevent it, and some locals suggest that US Army authorities prefer having commercial sex services available to soldiers.

Prostitutions are visited by American soldiers, Korean soldiers and Korean civilians. In the beginning most prostitutes were South Korean with minority of other women from Europe and Asia. Since the early 2000's most prostitutes were Filipina and Russian.

The number of South Korean prostitutes who worked as sex providers for American soldiers and Korean soldiers was between 26,000 and 39,000. This number is according to the research on the number of checkup for Venereal diseases from 1953 to 1969 by professor Lee Young-hoon an economic professor at Seoul National University. Surveys carried out the 1950s and 1960s suggest 60% of these prostitutes worked near U.S. military camps.

Korean government(보건사회복지부) figures give 10,000-30,000 prostitutes servicing the U.N/U.S. military in the South Korea in 1954, about 20,000 prostitutes in 1966, reducing to 13,000-14,000 in 1969. reducing to 9,935 in 1977.

Since 2004, the majority of prostitutes have been Philippine or Russian women. South Korean sex workers have become less numerous as Filipino and Russian women were a cheaper labor alternative. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, thousands of Russian migrated to Korea to work as sex entertainers in Korean red light districts while thousand others forced were into prostitution for both American soldiers and Korean civilian men and soldiers. Since the mid-1990s, foreigners make up 80–85% of the women working at clubs near military bases. Human traffickers not only brought Russian prostitutes for American and Korean soldiers but also brought in many Russian women through sham marriages with South Korean men. In 2005, Filipina and Russian women became common in many Korean red district and even accounted for 90 percent of all the prostitutes in U.S. military camp towns.

2000s

In 2003, the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality announced that 260,000 women—1 of 25 of young Korean women—may be engaged in the sex industry. The Korea Women's Development Institute suggested that from 514,000 to 1.2 million Korean women participate in the prostitution industry. A similar report by the Korean Institute of Criminology noted that 20% of men in their 20s pay for sex at least four times a month, with 358,000 visiting prostitutes daily.

In 2004, the South Korean government passed an anti-prostitution law (Special Law on Sex Trade 2004) prohibiting the buying and selling of sex and shutting down brothels. Soon afterward, over 2,500 sex workers demonstrated in the streets to demand the repeal of the law, as they believed it threatened their livelihood. In 2006, the Ministry for Gender Equality, in an attempt to address the issue of demand for prostitutes, offered cash to companies whose male employees pledged not to pay for sex after office parties. The people responsible for this policy claimed that they want to put an end to a culture in which men get drunk at parties and go on to buy sex.

In 2007 the government announced that sex tourism by Koreans would be made illegal, as well as Korean women going abroad to sell sex. The courts prosecuted 35,000 clients, 2.5 times higher than the number of those who were caught buying sex in 2003. Meanwhile, enforcement is weak and corruption problematic; there is little evidence that new legislation has made much difference, the trade simply finding other ways to carry on its business. However more men are being sent to "John School" for purchasing sex, while a 2010 investigation suggested that 20% of seniors seek out sex workers.

Range of services

Following the enactment of the Special Law in 2004, there was a crackdown on red-light districts; while many of the brothels in those areas were forced to close, the crackdown went as quickly as it came, with the result that prostitution was driven more underground but also became a more competitive business with lower prices and more services.

Red light districts in South Korea can compare to those of Amsterdam and Germany. The four main red light districts in South Korea prior to the Special Law are Cheongnyangni 588, Yongsan Station, and Mia-ri in Seoul and Jagalmadang in Daegu. While not all of them are operating to full capacity, some still exist while being tolerated not only due to the vast amount of money that is involved in the business, but also in an attempt to control the sex industry.

Other sexual services include 가택 마사지 (gataek massaji), an "in-call" massage where the customer would travel or meet at the masseuse's home or quarters; 키스방 (kiss bang), rooms where customers pay to french kiss and fondle women; and 출장 마사지 (chuljang massaji) or an "out-call" massage where the masseuse travels to the customer's place, love motel, hotel, or other agreed location.

Teen prostitution

According to a 2012 study by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 3% of runaway youths have been exposed to prostitution, either as a buyer or a prostitute. There have been reported cases of runaway girls who sell sex over internet chat, and live with "families" in jjimjilbang, or bathhouses, with fellow runaway girls. According to United Voice for Eradication of Prostitution, these teen prostitutes are exposed to such crimes as rape and diseases as syphilis. Recidivism is common, with over half of the girls counseled by the Voice returning to the sex trade, often because of blackmail from former pimps and social ostracism from future husbands and families.

Bacchus Ladies

Main article: Bacchus Ladies

In contrast to teen prostitution, women in their 50s, 60s, even their 70s called Bacchus Ladies are engaged in prostitution in a park near the Jongno-3 subway station in the heart of Seoul.

Sex trafficking

Prostitution and human trafficking notice by the United States Forces Korea
Main article: Sex trafficking in South Korea See also: Human trafficking in South Korea, Human rights in South Korea, and Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military

Though as recently as 2004 the government received low marks on the issue, in recent years the government has made significant strides in its enforcement efforts. Human trafficking was outlawed and penalties for prostitution increased; the 2004 Act on the Prevention of the Sex Trade and Protection of its Victims was passed, toughening penalties for traffickers, ending deportation of victims, and establishing a number of shelters for victims. As of 2005 there were 144 people serving jail time for human trafficking.

A US Immigration official conceded in 2006 that "There's a highly organized logistical network between Korea and the United States with recruiters, brokers, intermediaries.

A Los Angeles police spokesman said that about 90% of the department's 70–80 monthly arrests for prostitution involve Korean women and Los Angeles police estimates that there are 8,000 Korean prostitutes working in that city and its suburbs. According to Timothy Lim, the customers of Korean prostitutes in foreign countries are overwhelmingly non-Korean men in massage parlours, while their customers through out-call services, room salons and hostess bars are often 90-100% Korean. This makes clear that demand for Korean women is driven not only by American men "thirsting" for exotic women, but also by Korean men, especially first generation immigrant men or non-immigrant businessmen.

A US State Department report titled, "Trafficking in person's report: June 2008", states that in "March 2008, a joint operation between the AFP and DIAC broke up a syndicate in Sydney that allegedly trafficked South Korean women to a legal brothel and was earning more than $2.3 million a year. Police allege the syndicate recruited Korean women through deception about the conditions under which they would be employed, organized their entry into Australia under false pretenses, confiscated their travel documents, and forced them to work up to 20 hours a day in a legal Sydney brothel owned by the syndicate."

The US State Department report also states that the South Korean government "fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking". In 2012, the government continued law enforcement efforts against sex trafficking, and signed MOUs for the Employment Placement System (EPS) with five additional countries and conducted numerous anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. The Korean National Police Agency also cooperated with foreign law enforcement agencies to crack down on human smuggling networks.

The United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ranks South Korea as a 'Tier 1' country.

Foreign prostitutes in South Korea

South Korea is both a source and destination country for human trafficking. The agencies use high salaries to lure young girls to go to Korea and once they arrive they are forced to work as sex slaves.

China

Trafficking in Persons Report of the U.S. State Department has mentioned in many occasions that Chinese women are engaged in prostitution in South Korea. The report describes that they are issued a formal visa and are engaged in sexual services and sometimes they are sold as international marriage bribes and are now sexual workers. According to MINISTRY OF JUSTICE REPUBLIC OF KOREA as of 2016,There are 212,115 Chinese women (Han Chinese) staying in Korea. According to “Survey for the migrant women employed in the entertainment business in Korea” presented by Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, it is reported that the largest number of women engaged in commercial sex for South Korean men can be found in Han Chinese women.

According to MBC, the public broadcasting company of Korea, 80% of massage businesses in South Korea correspond to commercial sex establishments where Chinese women work. In 2012, 240 Chinese women were arrested for having prostituted in the massage parlors in Korea. The South Korean newspaper “The Dong-a Ilbo” reveals that sex workers in the so-called “휴게텔” are all composed of Chinese women (Han Chinese and Ethnic Korean Chinese) except “Gangnam” area. As of 2018, female students from China staying in South Korea reach 41,957 and many of them are caught by the press and reported as sexual workers.

Chinese women are engaged in prostitution through the country of South Korea such as Seoul, Incheon, Suwon, Pyeongtaek, Yongin, Siheung, Bucheon, Paju, Uijeongbu, Ansan, Anyang, Cheongju, Dangjin, Cheonan, Daejeon, Asan, Daegu, Busan, Gyeongju, Ulsan, Gwangyang, Changwon, Gangwon Province, Jeolla Province and Jeju Island. Chinese women engaged in prostitution practice their commercial sex not only in the cities but also in the rural areas of which the administrative unit corresponds to town and township.

Thai

According to the Justice Ministry, increasing numbers of Thai women are drawn to illegal "massage work" in the ROK. It estimates that the number of illegal Thai residents soared from 68,449 in 2017 to 122,192 in August 2018. Of the 60,000 who are women, some 50,000 are believed to be working in massage parlors, some of them fronts for prostitution. The owner of one Thai massage parlor in Gangnam said, "Even if I try to run a legitimate business, I have no idea what happens in the room between a client and a masseuse who wants to make more money." Massage parlors are illegal in Korea unless operated by blind people, but around 50,000 offer foot massage, sports massage, and acupressure. They employ some 300,000 workers.

Ukrainian

A report dated 2002 and released in 2003 asserted that Ukrainian sex-workers were the second largest group of foreign women involved into prostitution outside the US military bases in Republic of Korea.

Russian

Between January 2000 and March 2001, approximately 6,000 Russian women entered Korea through Busan port and Gimpo. In 2000, 3,064 Russians entered South Korea on E-6 visas, 2,927 of them women (Jhoty, 2001)

South Korean sex tourists in foreign countries

China

During the Autumn symposium held at Sinyang Humanities Hall of Seoul National University organized by Korean Association of Women's Studies, Jung Jae-won, a senior researcher of Institute for Gender Research of Seoul National University presented the survey results regarding current state of purchase of sexual services practiced by Korean men abroad. According to the survey presentation regarding “international expansion of Korean-type sex industry and commercial sex culture,” Korean men buy sex with Chinese prostitutes all over China.

It is estimated that there are more than 100 brothels (KTV) exclusively for South Korean men in Qingdao of China, which is the example of this city only. The survey shows that some brothel(KTV) for Korean men has each 150-300 Chinese women engaged in commercial sex. It is reported that a brothel(KTV) of Shanghai where South Korean men are regular customers has more than 500 Chinese prostitutes.

In 2007 it was reported that there were 33 online web sites linking Korean men to Chinese prostitutes. Many Korean men have used sex tour in groups with friends and co-workers. In 2013, the Korea Tourism Association filed a complaint with the police against some Internet site for arranging sex service by Chinese prostitutes for Korean men in China.

According to the 'Center for Women's Human Rights' , Korean high school students have bought Chinese prostitutes for sex while on a school field trip to China.

South Korean men continue to be a major source of demand for child sex tourism in China.

Southeast Asia

South Korean men continue to be a major source of demand for child sex tourism in both Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Child prostitutes in Southeast Asian countries were reportedly patronized mainly by South Korean men, who outstrip Japanese and Chinese as the most numerous sex tourists in the region, with the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand mainly seeing South Korean men using child prostitutes.

Korean prostitutes in foreign countries

The South Korean government has expressed concern over its citizens engaging in prostitution in foreign countries like Australia and the United States.

Australia

Many South Korean women are trafficked to Australia to work as prostitutes with more than a thousand Korean women in the Australian sex industry.

United States

Thousands of South Korean women are trafficked to the United States to work as prostitutes in massage parlors. American authorities arrested hundreds of Korean women for prostitution in the five years leading up to 2011, with the 2008 Korea-US Visa Waiver Program leading to an additional increase in the number of Korean prostitutes in America. The number of people who operate with trafficking rackets to ship Korean women into the sex trade in America reaches into the thousands.

China and Taiwan

Korean prostitutes worked in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period.

A ring of South Korean prostitutes, composed of 21 Korean women ranging in age from 24 to 37, serving Chinese men was busted in Macau in 2015.

Some Korean women wear kimonos while working as prostitutes in Macau.

Japan

In 2013, police broke up a racket trafficking women to Japan from Korea. In 2014, it was reported that websites promoting South Korean prostitutes in Japan have been blocked within South Korea by the government.

See also

References

  1. "US State Department Human Rights Report 2009: Republic of Korea". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on March 13, 2010.
  2. ^ Sex trade accounts for 1.6% of GDP Archived February 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. KWDI: Korea Women's Development Institute
  3. Tom Henheffer (February 18, 2010). "South Korea takes on prostitution: The country's sex workers generate 1.6% of total GDP". McLean's. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
  4. "[단독] 첫 성경험 연령 22.8세…남성 15%만 성매매 경험". 네이트뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  5. "S Korean sex workers rally against police crackdown". Asian Correspondent. AP News. May 17, 2011.
  6. ^ Cho, Grace (2008). Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War. University of Minnesota Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0816652754.
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  13. Cho 2008, p. 104.
  14. Cho 2007, p. 163. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCho2007 (help)
  15. Kim 2016, p. 46. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKim2016 (help)
  16. Lie 1995, p. 316. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLie1995 (help)
  17. Woo 2019, p. 145. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWoo2019 (help)
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