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U.S. military's anti-prostitution campaign makes headway in South Korea
By Kim Hyung-jin
January 31, 2005
Seoul - On a recent Saturday night, a scantily-clad South Korean bar lady was
speaking to several young American soldiers on "Hooker Hill," an infamous
red-light district in Itaewon near the U.S. military command in Seoul.
After a brief hesitation, the soldiers quickly left the spot, as U.S. military
police patrols were coming down the hill. That was an easily spotted scene that
night at a once-popular destination of U.S. troops outside of their base.
The U.S. crackdown on off-base night spot areas, such as Hooker Hill, only half
a mile away from the Yongsan Garrison, has been intensified in recent months,
coinciding with the South Korean enforcement of a tougher anti-prostitution law
in September.
The crackdown has drawn howls of complaints from Korean nightspots whose main
customers are U.S. soldiers. Currently, 32,500 U.S. troops are stationed in
South Korea.
"We sold only six bottles of beer on Christmas Eve. We couldn't pay rent for
the past six months," said a bar woman who wanted to be identified by her
alias, Song Jin-sook.
Song said the U.S. crackdown also led non-U.S. customers to shun the district.
Many bars in the area serve as sex fronts.
"Some time ago, U.S. MPs rushed into our place and took American GIs away in
handcuffs in front of civilian customers. On another day, MPs, all uniformed,
came to this bar and rudely asked foreign customers to show their IDs to check
if they are U.S. soldiers," Song said. "Who would come and drink here?"
U.S. military police, some jointly with South Korean police, routinely patrol
Hooker Hill. The U.S. military has designated 34 bars in Itaewon and 800
throughout South Korea as off-limits to its troops.
The U.S. military said more than 400 soldiers in South Korea were punished last
year for prostitution-related offenses, including trespassing on the posted
off-limits areas.
"These numbers indicate the extent to which this Command is vigorously
addressing and enforcing policies and regulations implemented to attack the
issue of prostitution and human trafficking in the entertainment districts
adjacent to U.S. military installations," Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, chief of the
U.S. military in South Korea, told the U.S. House Armed Service Committee in
September.
Club workers in Itaewon, however, are skeptical of the success of the U.S.
crackdown, as more and more American soldiers choose to go to other entrainment
districts, where there are no U.S. patrols.
"They should patrol all of Seoul rather than only focusing on Itaewon," said a
female club worker, requesting anonymity. "Now American soldiers go to the
Hong-ik University area (in western Seoul) to seduce young Korean girls who are
crazy for white men. I feel sorry for the young ladies." Other "exemplary," or
non-off-limits nightspots in Itaewon have also been hit hard by the U.S.
campaign.
"My restaurant is not an off-limits place, but my business is way down as well,
since U.S. soldiers don't come to Itaewon any longer. There are lots of
disadvantages," said Yoon One-sun, who has been running a restaurant in Itaewon
for 20 years.
Itaewon, also a major shopping district, caters to 2.4 million customers
annually, 70 percent of them foreigners, who spend about US$1.2 billion a year.
Itaewon's economy has already begun to suffer because of Washington's decision
to relocate the 7,000-strong Yongsan contingent out of Seoul by 2008.
The U.S. military stood firm on its anti-prostitution campaign.
"U.S. military commanders have a responsibility to ensure the welfare and
safety of their forces," said Lt. Col. Deborah Bertrand, a spokeswoman at the
Yongsan garrison. "It's a global policy, invoked even for establishments or
areas in the United States."
Off-limit restrictions, she said, are invoked in the event that establishments
engage in not only prostitution but also other illegal activities such as
illicit gambling, liquor violations and racial or discriminatory practices.
Any U.S. military personnel identified in an "off-limit" area is subject to
punishment ranging from adverse administrative action to criminal punishment.
The U.S. anti-prostitution stance was initiated following a 2002 Fox News
report indicating that the U.S. military police either condoned or supported
illegal trafficking of women in South Korea.
The report filmed with a hidden camera showed U.S. military patrols standing
watch as servicemen socialized with women in bars outside Camp Casey, north of
Seoul. The report led to a Pentagon investigation.
The U.S. military said it is considering placing the entire Hooker Hill area
off-limits to its service personnel.
Given South Korea's huge sex industry, some critics say that the U.S. efforts
to keep its troops away from brothels would not have much chance of success.
"Do you think it's possible to force young soldiers to just stay in their base,
given that they have been away from their homes and families?" said Song of the
off-limit bar.
Several U.S. soldiers interviewed complained about the tight crackdown.
"Like everybody else, there are good people and bad people. You just have to
separate the good and the bad," said one U.S. soldier in civilian clothes.
A 2003 report by the state-funded Korean Institute of Criminology shows that 20
percent of Korean male adults bought sex four times a month on the average,
while 4.1 percent of women aged between 20 to 30 sold sex to make a living.
The study also found the domestic sex industry -- from Amsterdam-style windowed
bordellos to massage parlors, barber shops and karaoke bars -- accounted for 4
percent of gross domestic product in Asia's third-largest economy.
A 2003 U.S. State Department report described South Korea as a "source, transit
and destination country" for women from the Philippines and other countries who
were trafficked for sexual exploitation.
In September, the South Korean government enforced a new law which more than
doubled punishment on human traffickers, pimps and prostitutes. Police hauled
in 8,480 violators by the end of December.
The new legislation aims to shut down all brothels in the country.
Brothel owners who engage in exploitative or coercive sex trafficking now face
up to 10 years in jail or 100 million won (US$100,000) in fines, and those who
buy sex also risk jail sentences.
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USFK
commander wants crackdown on prostitution in Itaewon's 'Hooker Hill'
1-10-2005
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