The X-Zone club is near Camp Hovey in Toka-ri. In the civil judgment issued May
20, Seoul District Court Judge Kim Soon-han said that while the woman worked at
the club from Feb. 8 to March 3, 2004, she was forced to perform acts of
prostitution with US soldiers for fees from $60 to $150.
This week the former bar worker, who asked not to be identified, said she still
was waiting for the bar owner to pay her the money awarded in the judgment.
The woman told Stars and Stripes in 2004 that agents from a South Korean
company in the Philippines recruited her as a nightclub singer early that year.
However, she said, soon after starting work at X-Zone club, she and several
Filipina workers were locked inside the club by Hwang and told to have sex with
US soldiers.
The woman said that rather than continue to work as a prostitute, she ran away
and contacted South Korean police, who raided X-Zone and found evidence of
prostitution.
X-Zone recently reopened in Toka-ri but now employs South Korean staff instead
of Filipinas, she said.
A lot of prostitution involving Filipinas and US soldiers still exists in
Tongducheon, she said, but the problem has shifted from Toka-ri to "the Ville"
area near Camp Casey's front gate after a crackdown by military authorities in
2004. US Forces Korea officials declined to comment Thursday afternoon.
Stars and Stripes
