I'm working on putting my work done at www.usinkorea.org since 2001-2002 into book form. Today, I was working on the issue of prostitution and how it is covered in the Korean and American press.

I was going to write a longer post on this, but I'll cut it short, because I have a request.

If you look on google for "prostitution" and "south korea" it seems a majority of the stories are about sex trafficing and sex slavery, and they deal exclusively with USFK and camp towns arguing the phenomenon of foreign prostitutes is directly tied to the U.S. military.

I never went to a prostitue in Korea or anywhere else, but this is hard for me to believe. Besides the notes I've seen here and there about Russian prostitutes getting busted in Korean-male only places, I know how big the sex industry is in Korea, and I know Korean men with more money go on sex tours to the SE Asian nations and China and elsewhere -- the very same nations the foriegn prostitutes are coming from.

But, if you google, you will see whenever sources look at the issue of sex traffficing, it is almost always limited to specifics about the US military.

We could do something about that. We could put together something worthy of print - either an article to get into one of the big newspaper, or at least something to put up on this and other Korea-focused websites about foriegn sex workers and the prostitution industry in the whole of Korean society, not just camp towns.

I can't do it from here in Georgia. But, if some people would collecet some information for me, I could write it up, if you do not feel like writing it up yourself.

Korean entertainment areas are not hard to find. The prostitution industry in Korea is open and well known.

Especially if you are near the bigger cities, like Pusan, Seoul, Inchon, Taegu, and the like, and you take a trip to one of those entertainment areas and bring a camera and write up a note describing what you saw, or what you have heard from others, and you emailed it to me, I'd be grateful.

In any case, when I get the opportunity again to go to Korea for an extended period, a month or more, this will definately be on my schedule -- not sleeping with prostitutes in Korea-male centered entertainment districts -- but going to those areas and recording what I can find.

But, that will be at least 1 to 2 years from now at the earliest.

It is a shame not to have something better up for people to read than what they can get via google today.

Hi,
Allow me to try to explain the reason why your google results have the themes that they do. I have been in korea quite a while now and I am married to a filipina who i helped run away from one of the most well none a blatant systems of human trafficking in the world. Many places in Korea, esp. Camp Towns offer what it refered to as "juicy bars". These bars cater to american clientel only. Koreans, unless somehow involved in the network, are typically not allowed into these bars. When you enter these bars you will generally see a girl dancing in a thong and a bra and several girls sitting around the room. These girls are prodominently Filipina who are conned into coming to korea under the false pretense that they will become singers here in korea. They are even put through singing courses and given numerous auditions before being issued a visa to come to korea. These "juicy bars" typically offer a myriad of illegal practice some the most prodominant being prostitution. The girls are forced to work off a imaginary dept and told if they do not do whatever it takes to work off this dept they will be sent back to the philippines and still be required to pay this dept. (which is all but impossible on the Filipino economy.) Now im not saying that it is americans who created this problem as i definitly thing that Koreans who are involved are the culprits. However, a fire needs oxygen to burn, and in the Camp towns of korea American military personel act as the oxygen for the flame of human trafficking.

I get what you are saying and understand it and know it to be true, but I have problems with the last line about how the camp towns are the primary source of fuel for the fire.

If this were Korea of the 1950s and 60s, I could stomach the Korean complaint more. Like some other dirt poor nations in the past, South Korea sought hard currency through milking foriegns through the prostitution industry with U.S. servicemen and military contractors being the largest, most steady clients. The Park Chung Hee administration openly promoted Japanese sex tourists after its economy took off.

But, the import of foriegn sex workers might have been in the time period in which Korean prostitutes decided they could make better money under better conditions away from camp towns (which is what you read all the time on the net about the topic), but it also started when Korean men, exercising South Korea's new found wealth, started touring the more poor Asian nations (and Russia or foreign Soviet satellites) on sex tours just like the Japanese, Western Europeans, and North Americans.

There was a good quote a couple of years ago from on the English language paper's editorial writers:

When the Manila government filed a suit against the owner of the…a diary written by one of the [Filipina] women was made public. In the diary, which I read in newspapers, a 22-year-old woman named Ellen accused Koreans of being "sex maniacs." I still don't understand why she said so, since her clientele mainly consisted of U.S. soldiers.

What all these articles I read on the net want me to believe is that even though the sex industry makes up a sizable portion of Korea's GDP, prostitution is open and everywhere, and Korean men are travelling to other nations in part to have sex with foreign women, the foreign prostitutes brought into Korea are the product of the US military.

I also think it is slightly outrageous I keep reading article after article that the US authorities are dispicable because they do not put an end to the situation.

The US military has authority over GIs, but even there, they cannot bust into clubs to catch them in the act. They can't set up sting operations by bugging a club or put hidden cameras in to collect evidence.

The Koreans have the authority over the laws, law enforcement, visas, immigration, and so on.

But, that is not what you get from the articles on the net....

I was here then, and I am back now. I have been in and out of Korea for 47 years. Prostitution is no more, or no less prevalent now than it was in 1959!
Korean men or Foreign men, it makes no difference here. There are periods when it goes underground or moves around to another part of town, but it doesn't go away. Human trafficking is being publicised on the American Forces radio every single day; an informative video was recently put on the internet and all US Forces were required to view it and take a test, to insure they understood that human trafficking is "Wrong, Illegal, and will not be tolerated." It brings big money to the "Mafia" in every corner of the world.

In the early '60s there was an alley by the Seoul Train station where human trafficking in girls and children was rampant. Today, it may be harder to find small children, but near certain train stations today, there are painted women sitting in glass fronted rooms on side streets, just as they do in Amsterdam. The ones I saw were foreign, possibly European, and well proportioned. I didn't stop to ask what they were selling.
I hear that the Korean Government is vowing to eliminate prostitution "by 2007". The U.S. Military last October changed the Uniform Code of Military Justice to say that hiring a Prostitute is punishable by up to 1 year in confinement, loss of pay and allowances, and/or a discharge.
Until they find a way to change human nature, don't look for anything to change much in the attraction between men and women.

It is no different in Chicago, Miami, London, Moscow, you name it. It is not worse in Korea or Japan. Maybe a little less hidden, thats all.

It would serve no purpose for me to send you photos, or anything else.
Just plan on little or no change in the prostitution situation worldwide, and
you will have more time for other more fruitful pursuits.

I would disagree with some qualification on the level of it being the same in the US as in Korea.

If I wanted, I could find a prostitute in my area of Georgia. In Atlanta, I've seen street walkers. The first time I saw them like in the movies was in Columbia SC. If an American male wants one, he can fine one.

I could say it is about as open as it is in Korea. We have a wide variety of forms to get it. Strip clubs as opposed to room salons.

But, I don't think it is as big as in Korea. I don't think you would as high a percentage of men in the US saying they go to prostitues as you do in Korea --- either in the 20 something generation or the older working men.

I'm sure part of it is cultural, with part of that being the influence of religion (you could say the same about the US and Europe with the puritan influence still being felt a little in the prostitution area), but if I had to guess at a stronger influence, I'd think its is geographic and demographic.

Maybe one reason Korean males go to prostitutes at a much higher percentage than males in the US is that Korean society is much more compact and has such a greater population density.

If prostitution was as easy to get to as in a major urban area like New York, LA, or even Atlanta as it is for Koreans most everywhere there, the US would start approaching Korean society's numbers.

But, I don't think we are that close to them on the percentage of men that have been to a prostitute and the percentage of men that still do so on occasion.

Include this Article from GI Korea Blog in your writings. I found it interesting reading and I know that it was a problem even back when I was there in the 70's. It was a main reason we and especially single American women were told when we venture outside the base to go in groups.

Mike

I think the reason why prostitution is alleged to be much severe when the military is involved is because the morale of military personnel means a lot more than an ordinary person's. When the military is drawn in, the assessment of a flaw is so much more than it should be.

Take a glimpse of how it is going to be without these clubs that run entertainment in whichever way; call it prostitution or juicy girls club or even human trafficking. The higher the risk of Sexual assault INSIDE THE MILITARY ASSOCIATION ITSELF… then you cannot put the blame on Korean people, or the government that could possibly do something about it or the Russian and Filipino prostitutes.Isn't it that much more unbecoming and demeaning to the US military? Supporting prostitution is punishable by law, but these young GIs are bound to a certain natural urge that the government CANNOT CATER TO. Wherever the military installation is, that’s where you can find chronic prostitution. Human trafficking and prostitution is consented by force… and you will never understand it from the point of view of criticism.

I’m a Filipino. I see things you have never seen. Your theories are merely based on research, readings and further more readings. I know alot of people who work in clubs who helped a cousin come here for the same reason. The cousin helped a friend for the same purpose. ITs like a pyramid or networking... it's not always the bad people that has to be blamed

And by the way, I think GIs are restricted to go to clubs that allow prostitution. Most of the prostitution scenarios from where I am from here in Korea are mostly UNDER THE TABLE…. OR CONSENTED by the person herself.

In Pyongtaek City, between Osan AB and Camp Humprheys, near the main bus station is essentially a red light district where foreigners are not welcome. It caters to Korean businessman. From what I have seen (they have something similar to Thai fishbowls) and what I am told by former colleagues, these women are predominantly Korean. There was a huge backlash to the 'juicy' industry by the Korean government in the late 90's when the women were predominantly Korean... don't remember seeing any other nationalities. So the businessmen began importing Filipinas and Russian women.

While women are not held at gunpoint to participate in prostitution, there is coercion involved. Examples:

Osan AB -- Stereo Club (2003-2004): To make full salary, girl must earn 80 chips. She got 1 chip for a juice/whiskey or 3 for tequila shot which cost double for the customer. That is a whole lot of juice. An adept girl who is great at bulla-bulla (bullshit), can earn that straight up. A bar-hop fine (~150) can earn her 30 chips... all she has to do is go out, bar-hop, get lit, go back to the club a around 2300 and puke her guts out. A full fine (~300) can earn her 60 chips... all she has to do is go out, bar-hop, get lit, and either con her way out of staying with the customer or just do it... she make like him or not. At the Stereo Club, the girl could refuse the full fine, and although the ajama would pressure, the girl wins. She still needs to earn those 80 chips or find her salary reduced.

Osan AB -- VIP Club (2003-2004): The above mostly fits, except that when a customer decides he wants to pay a fine, the girl gets half.. not chips... cash money. On the other hand, the girl is locked out of the club if the guy pays, so she has no choice.

The problem is not due to GIs, although we do create a larger market in the camp towns. Who prostitutes is a complex ****tail of economics and morality.

__________________
JIMMY JOE

When my uncle was in country he had a korean friend that took him to Pyong Teak. He described it has 'unique but weird' exclusive club, not something he wanted to experience again. He and I, not to mention some of his friends were trying to figure out the 3 questions that should never be asked at the same time: How, When and Why are Fillapino and Russian girls more popular than korean women. I received some feedback regarding the why. I've been to the ROK too, and seen many a SM give up on chasing after female soldier because of the availabilty of Korean women, which drastically minimized any sexual harassment claims. I even heard of a few females that spent their weekends in Seoul alledgely servicing Korean Men in seoul and Tague. No one ever provided that to be the case, but had all their, for a lack of a better word 'government issued' furniture placed in storage and used and slpt on stuff that couldn't in my mind be afforded on an E-2 and E-3's monthly paycheck. Who knows. I will say since the 1950's Korea has allowed this type of conduct. When I was in country we had SM from the TMC check prostitute cards and ID those who VD. Strange to see a clinic full of GIs on Monday morning just to get a check up.

I don't have the time to track it down, but there is a report on the internet written in the 1990s (in English) by a Korean academic research team that dealt with prostitution culture in Korea past and present.

In reference to what you mentioned, before Korea began to reap the benefits of their sacrifice and hard work in the late 1980s and 1990s, one way the government gained hard currency was through Japanese sex tourism and catering to the US military.

Google around for the report. It goes into a lot of depth and covers a lot of aspects of the situation.

And it read to me as strictly academic --- not political or geopolitical ---

which is something you WILL NOT FIND in English language academic articles written about prostitution and the military (US or not) in American academia.