It's
the world's oldest profession, and in South Korea it's a
recession-proof industry that contributes more to the
nation's economy than the agriculture and fisheries
industries combined. And it's expanding. The Ministry of
Gender Equality estimates that South Korea's sex
industry generates profits in excess of US$22 billion a
year, while employing some 500,000 women and girls. But
non-governmental organizations and civic groups suggest
the number may be even higher, concluding that if all
informal venues of prostitution, such as the myriad
wonjokyoje, or younger girls "dating" older men
for cash, were factored in, the number of prostitutes
could well exceed a million.
Venues where women
and girls are available for a price total at least
390,000, according to civic groups, and they are quite
literally everywhere in South Korea. Every neighborhood
has at least a few singing rooms, room salons, business
clubs, tea rooms or barber shops where sexual services
can be bought. Given the openness of the prostitution
and the leaflets and flyers advertising the multitudes
of locations where women can be procured, one could be
forgiven for not realizing it's all illegal.
Legal prostitution was abolished in 1948. The
anti-prostitution law - a bill that also gave a virtual
green light to red-light districts - was enacted in
1961. And in 1999, legislation provided for publication
of the names of those who procure sex from minors,
though it is rarely enforced. The nation's Commission on
Youth Protection asserts that more than half the girls
arrested for prostitution are under 16.
South
Korea is not known for openly confronting societal
problems, traditionally preferring to shunt nationally
embarrassing issues to the side, in the belief that if
something isn't acknowledged it will cease to exist. But
the sex industry is not disappearing. Indeed, it is one
of South Korea's few truly recession-proof industries
enjoying steady growth, largely immune to economic
cycles. However, Korean society is changing and women,
long exploited and often abused by the still rigidly
patriarchal society, are beginning to demand that their
legally enshrined personal and human rights be
respected.
With the help of the Korean Bar
Association, some prostitutes have begun taking ruthless
brothel owners to court for violating their human
rights. And as these women come forward and give
testimony about being physically confined and forced
into the sex trade, often to repay loans proffered by
the same gangsters who own the sex clubs, the ugly
realities of South Korea's sex industry are beginning to
come to light. Women receiving loans from gangsters must
pay ridiculously high rates of interest, making it
impossible for the girls and women ever to pay them
back.
Groups of sex workers from South Cholla
province in the country's southwest told of being forced
to perform sex for fear of suffering violence. They said
they were held captive and their every move was
monitored, making escape impossible.
And what of
the police who are sworn to uphold the law and protect
the weak? According to recent reports and testimony from
sex workers themselves, many police officers have long
been taking payoffs from brothel owners, with some even
demanding sex with prostitutes in return for turning a
blind eye to the brothel's activities. In one recent
incident, again in Cholla province, two police officers
are being questioned, and another two sought, for
allegedly having group sex with at least four
junior-high-school girls working at area sex clubs.
A few small but positive steps The
fact that investigations are taking place and that more
women are beginning to speak out are small but positive
steps forward. Only five years ago, two men in the city
of Daejeon were found to be harboring a runaway
middle-school girl. The two were accused of having sex
with the young girl for months in exchange for giving
her lodging. They were arrested but later released,
since the judge in the case determined that the sex was
consensual and that the money they gave her was too
small a sum to be considered payment for sex - her minor
status apparently not withstanding. Another judge in the
same city ruled that massage parlors, another in a long
list of venues where sex can be bought, while
technically violating laws against prostitution, were
also performing an "indispensable service" to the
community by offering a place where men could relieve
their sexual frustrations. All charges against the owner
were dropped.
And this is where the problem
lies. As long as South Korea maintains the illegality of
prostitution while turning a blind eye to one of the
fastest-growing industries in the nation, the industry
itself escapes regulation and the sex workers do not
enjoy even the most basic of human rights. In 2002 in a
red-light district in Kunsan, 15 sex workers were killed
when the building where they were confined caught fire.
With the doors bolted from the outside and bars over the
windows to prevent escape, the girls were unable to flee
the flames, all suffering a horrific death. A Seoul
court ruled in favor of the bereaved families, awarding
them a total of $2 million in compensation from the
brothel owner.
The same judge, however, ruled
that the local government and the police had no legal
responsibility, even though the brothel confined the
women with the likely knowledge of the local
authorities.
The federal government seems set to
continue denying the scope and scale of the sex
industry, declaring this month that it would "shut down"
South Korea's red-light districts by 2007. The
government was careful to focus only on red-light
districts, even though government ministries estimate
these areas account for only 2 percent of South Korea's
enormous sex industry. These districts have been in
steady decline for the past 10 years, relics of Korea's
postwar camp-town past. Seoul's red-light districts
include Hawolgok-dong, Chongnyangni, Yongdungpo,
Yongsan, Chonho-dong and other smaller zones, areas that
feature block after block of young women in windows.
These extensive areas feature women displayed under red
fluorescent lights, the same kind of lights Korean
butcher shops use to display meat.
Putting these
zones on the chopping block will do little to curb South
Korea's sex industry, as most men prefer clubs, singing
rooms and massage parlors - or increasingly popular
Internet portals - to procure sex. Indeed, the closing
of these red-light districts, if it actually happens,
will actually increase the health risks to workers and
their patrons, as government reports have found that the
rates of sexually transmitted disease are higher in the
more popular and ubiquitous clubs and salons than in
traditional red-light zones.
Further, the move
against these historical zones could well be geared more
toward freeing up real estate for residential
development than striking a blow against prostitution.
The area around "Miari" in Hawolgok-dong, for instance,
is virtually surrounded by residential apartment blocks,
creating an obvious profit incentive for residential
rezoning.
But even this very modest government
initiative is encountering stiff and curious opposition
from the association of brothel owners - the
association's existence a testament to just how tacitly
condoned the brothel business is. They are demanding
that the government scrap its plans. Invoking their
constitutional rights, the brothel owners are
threatening to sue the government for infringing on
their constitutionally guaranteed property rights if the
government closes their brothels.
Through all of
this, one fact is clear. The sex industry in South Korea
is enormous and it is not about to go away. With most
areas of South Korea's economy showing lackluster
growth, the sex industry - the billions of dollars it
generates and the hundreds of thousands it employs -
cannot be legislated away. The still patriarchal Korean
culture tolerates men seeking sex for pay. This may be
contributing to family discord and divorce - South
Korea's rate is almost 50 percent, making it second only
to the United States. There are no signs, however, that
the industry is slowing.
As long as the nation
remains tacitly tolerant of the practice, the industry
must be taken out of the shadows and into the open
through legislation and regulation. The most abhorrent
aspects of the industry - the abuse of children and
trafficking and enslavement of women - must be
abolished, while the revenues from the industry can be
taxed for the benefit of the larger society.
David Scofield, former lecturer at the
Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee
University, is currently conducting post-graduate
research at the School of East Asian Studies, University
of Sheffield.
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