Sex Work in South Korea

A district court judge in South Korea has requested that the courntry's Constitutional Court review the constitutionality of a law punishing sex workers. Judge Oh Won-chan of Seoul Northern District Court argued in the request:

Sexual contact between adults, unless it involves coercion or extortion, should be left for the parties to decide in view of their right to self-determination. The current law does not reflect a change in social views that the state should not interfere in such matters.

There is little evidence that punishing sex workers is effective in curbing the sex trade. Also, they are some legal issues regarding how to draw the line between forced or voluntary prostitution.

Subject to the review is the clause 1, article 21, of the nation's criminal law which stipulates that both the purchasing and selling of sex carry a penalty of up to 1 year in prison or a fine of up to 3 million won.

This is the first time that the law on prostitution, enacted in September 2004, has been brought to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court now must decide within 180 days and the original trial will be suspended until its verdict is out.

The state-funded Korea Consumer Agency announced the results of a survey on Friday which found that two-thirds of South Korean senior citizens are sexually active, and half of those pay for sex.

The Korea Times reported that the survey of 500 South Koreans over age 60 determined that 66% are having sex, and that 53% of that group --- or 35% of the survey group overall --- said they pay for sex.

Paying sex workers is illegal in South Korea.

An even larger group, 39%, argued that paying for sex is necessary because the elderly have no choice. That's fewer than the 31% who said prostitution is unacceptable.

The Korea Herald reported on Sunday that more than half of the sexually active senior citizens said they buy anti-impotence pills, and 20% of them said they used sex toys.

The pimps and prostitutes of Yeongdeungpo start the day as if preparing for a siege, stocking their brothels with flammable liquid and gas containers. Large, red-lettered signs warn police that they're willing to die to protect their livelihoods.

We can turn on the gas and light the flames, said a 47-year-old pimp who would only give her surname Sohn. We know that we don't have much chance of winning ... but we're ready to die fighting.

Nearly seven years after tough laws began driving thousands of South Korean prostitutes out of business, the sex workers of the Yeongdeungpo red-light district in Seoul are fighting back, spurred by what they say is an unprecedented campaign of police harassment. Since April they've staged large, sometimes violent, protests that provide a glimpse of the tensions in this fast-changing country as ambitious urban redevelopment projects encroach on old neighborhoods once known for their nightlife.

Rallies by sex workers against police crackdowns crop up occasionally in South Korea, but the protests in Yeongdeungpo, which have drawn hundreds of other prostitutes, pimps and supporters, have been unusual in their size, organization and fury.

The district's 40 to 50 prostitutes describe their fight in life-and-death terms. At a recent protest, about 20 topless women covered in body and face paint doused themselves in flammable liquid and had to be restrained from setting themselves on fire.

Prostitution was banned in South Korea in 1961, but police rarely enforced the law. Tougher legislation was created, however, after a 2002 fire killed 14 women confined at a drinking salon and forced to entertain and sometimes have sex with customers.

About 259,000 people, 70% of them male customers, have been arrested since the new laws took effect in 2004. Nearly 4,000 prostitutes have left their brothels, while 1,800 remain, and seven of the country's 35 major red-light districts have disappeared, according to police records.

Hundreds of sex workers rallied near a red-light district in Seoul to protest a police crackdown on brothels. A crowd of about 400 people, mostly women, chanted slogans like Guarantee the right to live! at the rally.

The rally comes weeks after officials began stationing police cars near brothels in a bid to drive away people looking to pay for sex.

Prostitution is illegal in South Korea but is widespread despite repeated government crackdowns.

The South Korean government has put its plan to establish the legal grounds to punish the operators of bars and clubs that are a cover for male prostitution on hold.

Cabinet members suspended a vote on the bill for the law revision proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, asking for a more thorough review and examination.

The suspension came after President Lee Myung-bak put the brakes on the move said the revised law could legally acknowledge host bars where young males entertain female customers, often sexually, and therefore more profound measures to prevent such illegal practices were necessary.

Under the current law the authorities cannot arrest such male workers and their employers as only females are defined as jeopdaebu, a Korean term referring to those who serve drinks and sell sex at bars or clubs. The proposed bill was to include males in the definition to fix the loophole.

The health ministry now plans to discuss the issue with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Gender, Equality and Family, as well as the National Police Agency.

More and more Koreans are buying or selling sex overseas in more diverse, bolder, and sophisticated ways. Hong Jung-wook of the ruling Grand National Party has accused the government of being negligent in taking action against them, according to

At a National Assembly interpellation session to audit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hong said that much evidence of the overseas sex trade is scattered on the Internet and some agencies are openly recruiting girls for prostitution.

For instance, a tourist agency posted schedules for sex tours — which included information about types and number of times of prostitution, and prices ranging from 1.2 million won to 2.2 million won — on online community websites.

Another website recruited Korean women to work as prostitutes abroad, with the ads claiming that women can earn up to 45 million won per month in New York.

Rep. Hong visited Phnom Penh in Cambodia, popular for sex trade among Korean men, and found that they were the main target of the prostitution businesses there.

He went to three Phnom Penh brothels, and he found all of them were looking for Korean tourists. One of them hired minors, he said.

Despite this rampant overseas sex trade involving Koreans, he accused the government of being lax in cracking down. The government has confiscated passports of those who are caught buying sex and restricted the issuing of new passports since 2008. However, only 16 people were punished in 2008; 16 in 2009; and 38 in the first half of this year.

The government needs to come up with stronger measures against those who trade in sex abroad, which could severely harm the national brand of Korea, Hong said: The government could have cracked down on such websites mediating prostitution abroad, but they seem to have given up doing so.

As police crackdowns on brothels in traditional red light zones have been intensifying after the anti-prostitution law was passed in 2004, owners have found creative ways to fly below the police radar.

Brothel owners have swiftly changed the faces of their businesses, which masquerade as massage parlors or telephone chat rooms, but authorities have also clamped down on these new sex shops.

Amid this game of cat and mouse, a new kind of business has appeared -- Kiss Bang or kissing rooms, where men pay to kiss female workers.

Such establishments are an unintended effect of the special anti-prostitution law passed in 2004, which penalizes both the dealer and client of sex services, experts say.

According to a study conducted by the Ministry of the Female Gender in 2007, the number of brothels in Korea decreased 41%, from 1,679 shops in 2004 to 992 in 2007. Also, the number of women working in the sex industry decreased from 5,567 in 2004 to 2,523, dropping 55%

However, the number of massage parlors and other businesses suspected of engaging in the sex trade nearly doubled to 9,451 in 2007 from 5,481 in 2005.

It is difficult for authorities to harass this new type of business because there are no laws against kissing for money.

Gender Inequality Minister Byun Do-yoon said last month that her ministry would, with the aid of local police, carry out a large-scale crackdown on kissing rooms and other new types of sex related establishments.

For now, the only thing we can do about kissing rooms is strengthen on-the-spot crackdowns and find an actual sex trade there. Then we can suspend their businesses for sexual acts, said Kim Ga-ro, director of Women's Rights Planning Division at the Ministry of Gender Inequality: We are closely studying ways to penalize these establishments.

Police who participate in crackdowns say it is not easy to find these clandestine businesses. Kissing rooms receive clients only through online reservations, and surveillance cameras are installed in front of their buildings, making raids difficult.

It is hard to find where these shops are located. Besides, even if we can find the shops at all, they have strict entrance rules. We don't have enough manpower, and there are not enough reports from citizens, said a policeman, who asked not to be named.