Lee, a 26-year-old former sex worker, charts a different future for herself at a
job retraining center in this port city on the Yellow Sea. She's part of a bold
government experiment to rescue and rehabilitate hundreds of thousands of
prostitutes under laws enacted in 2004 that secured some of them victim
protection and fortified penalties for pimps and brothel owners.
The laws, say advocates and government officials, are slowly rewriting a
50-year history of the modern sex trade that began with US military occupation
and expanded through South Korea's economic explosion.
"It's a miracle for them to have an opportunity to find shelter here," said Bae
Suk-ill, director of the Incheon Women's Hotline, which runs the local center.
"Most of them are afraid of being socialized in the outside world."
More than 1 million women work in the domestic sex trade, according to
nongovernmental estimates, turning tricks around US military bases and
scattered red-light districts that cater to Korean clients. The government puts
the number closer to 300,000.
Many live under conditions of debt bondage, similar to the international sex
trade, with initial fees for working at a brothel that expand with charges for
lodging, food, cosmetics and medicine.
If women violate brothel rules by overeating or engaging in other prohibited
activities, the debt can grow, said Chung Bong-hyup, an assistant minister in
the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family.
Chung cites statistics showing that 90 percent of domestic sex workers have
also suffered physical abuse.
"Once the women get into the sex industry, even voluntarily, they have to
suffer the vicious circle, and it is difficult for them to escape in the end,"
he said.
The assistant minister said the number of South Korean sex workers peaked
during the 1980s and `90s, when huge demand sparked kidnappings of teenagers
and women into the trade.
The legal protections offer victims counseling, job retraining, medical
treatment, a monthly stipend and legal support. To qualify, women have to show
coercion, drug addiction or disability or be underage.
The US State Department's most recent annual report on human trafficking
praises South Korean efforts as "best practices" in the fight against
commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls.
Chung said the reforms have pushed some brokers and women abroad to countries
such as Russia, China, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States.
"In Korea, the regulations are very strict. That's why brokers take the girls
to other countries," he said.
When the women return, the assistant minister said, they're often forced back
into brothels.
On Hooker Hill - near a US military base, in a motley neighborhood of bars and
clubs catering to foreigners - dozens of prostitutes work behind windows and
curtains. But their numbers are fewer and their image more discreet, some say.
Inside one bar, Kim won't tell her life story.
"My story is a very wrong story," she said with a grimace.
Still, the 34-year-old prostitute said she wouldn't consider going to America.
"People don't want to go to the States anymore because they treat them bad,"
she said. "Usually it spoils the American dream."
The Dallas Morning News
