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South Korea targets sex trade, for now
By Andrew Salmon
October 19, 2004
Seoul - As a one-month police crackdown on South Korea's multibillion-dollar
sex industry draws to a close this week, most brothel districts in Seoul are
deserted, but questions persist about what will happen once enforcement of a
tough new anti-prostitution law eases up.
Although the law was passed in March, enforcement by the police began in
earnest only on Sept. 22, yielding a sharp decline in business in Seoul's
red-light districts and vociferous street protests over the last three weeks by
workers in the sex trade, among them masked prostitutes and blind masseuses,
who are angry over the law's threat to their livelihood.
The severity of the law, which calls for prison terms of up to 10 years for
procurers and threatens clients of prostitutes with jail as well, has clearly
dented the sex trade in a country where the sector rakes in $21 billion a year,
or 4 percent of the gross domestic product, according to the Korean Institute
of Criminology.
A report by the institute last year also found that 4.1 percent of women in
their 20s - or 330,000 women - are in the trade, and that 20 percent of adult
males purchase sex four times a month. The phenomenon affects not just South
Korean women: The U.S. State Department's 2004 Traffic in Persons report named
South Korea a transit and destination point for Southeast Asian women.
Although prostitution has been illegal in South Korea since 1948, the sector
has been largely tolerated.
Things changed two years ago.
"In January 2002, 14 women died in a brothel fire," recalled Representative Yoo
Seung Hee, a member of the National Assembly's committee on women's affairs.
"Since then, women's rights groups have called for a fundamental solution to
this problem."
After feminist pressure, the new anti-prostitution bill was ushered in with the
monthlong clampdown, which ends on Friday.
The law, which is clearly aimed at brothel owners, calls for 10 years in jail
or fines of 100 million won, about $87,000, for pimps, and a year in jail or a
fine of 3 million won for customers of prostitutes. The law also frees
prostitutes of debts to pimps and encourages them to report the men;
previously, the women would also have been punishable for engaging in the sex
trade.
The reasoning behind the measure, Yoo said in an interview, was, "If we cut
demand, we can cut supply."
Normally, in Seoul's red-light zones like Cheongyangni and Miari Texas,
prostitutes can be seen openly soliciting behind glass doors in pink-lit
alcoves. But on a recent weeknight, Cheongyangni's maze of alleys was dark and
silent.
The only people visible were three-man police squads posted at intersections
and patrolling the streets.
In the first two weeks of the crackdown, the police reported 468 arrests
nationwide.
But enforcement of the law has also sparked angry showdowns between women in
favor of the law and those against it. When the crackdown began, fistfights
were reported between prostitutes and women activists. In the largest
demonstration, outside the National Assembly on Oct. 6, some 2,800 prostitutes,
their faces covered by masks, sat holding signs demanding the right to earn a
living. Clearly, though, it was orchestrated by brothel owners: On the fringes
of the rally, large men with spiky haircuts were visibly organizing the women.
Some in the industry defend the trade. "I think wives' associations are behind
the crackdown," said Park Song Bok, 49, who manages a bar in the red-light
district of Itaewon and has been in the industry for more than 20 years. "But
what about single guys?" she said. "And married men always hide some money to
pay for it."
The trade does not stop at the big red-light districts. Sex is also on offer at
certain "barbershops," coffee shops with "take out" services, "sports massage
parlors," and corporate entertainment outlets where businessmen drink expensive
whiskey in the company of "waitresses."
At least one zone has practically escaped the crackdown: "Hooker Hill" in
Itaewon, Seoul's expatriate district.
Up a steep, 50-meter, or 160-foot, alley and its surrounding side streets,
outside bars with names like "Nymph," "Venus" and "Starbutts," ladies of the
night and a smattering of transsexuals continued to ply their trade after the
crackdown began. But there was no joy and little life; more than half the bars
were shut.
Meanwhile, Itaewon's traditional clientele - soldiers from the nearby U.S. 8th
Army base, headquarters of the 33,000 troops in Korea - also face issues.
The U.S. Department of Defense, citing human trafficking concerns, is currently
considering regulations that would court-martial troops soliciting prostitutes.
General Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, testified before Congress
on Sept. 21 on efforts by his command to prevent troops from visiting
prostitutes. Some 600 establishments nationwide are off-limits to soldiers,
said a U.S. forces spokesperson.
There is also the security angle. "Ever since Sept. 11, when they instituted
troop curfews, it's never been the same up there," said a barman in an Itaewon
pub.
With U.S. forces preparing to pull out of their Seoul base by 2007, the
prospects for Itaewon are uncertain.
As for the rest of the country, whether the crackdown will yield long-term
results is far from certain. Although the law will remain, police resources
devoted to patrols and raids will be scaled back beginning Oct. 22.
"Considering the issue and our capabilities, we thought one month an
appropriate period for the crackdown," said a police spokesperson.
A previous clampdown in Miari, in 2001, had no lasting effect; the police
chief, a woman, eventually called for state-regulated prostitution.
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