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.Sex trade accounts for 1.6% of GDP . KWDI: Korea Women's Development Institute 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
Before the modernization of Korea, there were no brothels, but a caste of 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 opened its first ports in 1876 through a diplomatic pact, causing ethnic quarters for Japanese migrants to sprout up in Busan, Wonsan and Incheon.
1960s: US military
From the 1960s to the present day, US camptown 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 camptowns 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 security at these US camptown 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.
Prostitution establishments are visited by American soldiers, Korean soldiers and Korean civilians. In the beginning most prostitutes were South Korean, with a minority of other women from Europe and Asia. Since the early 2000s most prostitutes have been 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 checkups for venereal diseases from 1953 to 1969 by Professor Lee Young-hoon, an economics professor at Seoul National University. Surveys carried out in 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 South Korea in 1954, about 20,000 prostitutes in 1966, reducing to 13,000-14,000 in 1969, and reducing to 9,935 in 1977.
Since 2004, the majority of prostitutes have been Filipina or Russian women. South Korean sex workers have become less numerous as Filipina and Russian women were a cheaper labor alternative. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, thousands of Russians migrated to Korea to work as sex entertainers in Korean red light districts, while thousand others were forced into prostitution for both American soldiers and Korean civilian men and soldiers. Since the mid-1990s, foreigners have made 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 districts and even accounted for 90 percent of all the prostitutes in U.S. military camptowns.
2000s In 2003, the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality announced that 260,000 women—1 of 25 of young Korean women—might be engaged in the sex industry. The Korea Women's Development Institute suggested that from 514,000 to 1.2 million Korean women participated 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 wanted 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 sought 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 ended as quickly as it had begun, 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 are comparable to those of Amsterdam and Germany. The four main red light districts in South Korea prior to the Special Law were Cheongnyangni 588, Yongsan Station, and Mia-ri in Seoul and Jagalmadang in Daegu. Although they no longer operate at full capacity, some still exist, 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 travels to or meets up 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 buyers or prostitutes. 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 such 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 by future husbands and families.
Bacchus Ladies
In contrast to teen prostitution, women in their 50s, 60s, and 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
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 the Los Angeles Police Department 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 parlors, 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. "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"."
A US State Department report titled "Trafficking in Persons 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.
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