Prostitution in South Korea

[Jimbo]

The Army used to tacitly support prostitution in Korea with health checks and such; however, USFK is proactive in fighting prostitution.

[kville79]

Being, more than likely, the person on this board with the most recent tour (2004-06 JSA-UNCSB, and 2ID) in Korea I can tell you that the recent trend since the mid to late 90's has been to discourage soldiers from engaging in pay-for-sex. But of course soldiers will be soldiers, and a lot do.

Trying to be as clear and concise about this subject, and knowing I'm a bad writer and conveyor of stories I'll stay true to the tried and tested format of bullet points.

1. Prostitution around bases

a. Not Koreans, in 2004 there where Russians as well as Filipinos, but by 2005 the Russians where gone (we believed they where forced out because they kept on bringing the Russian mob to Korea).

b. Reduced extremely during my tour there, at first there was quite a number of such bars with "juicy girls" but by the time I left there number had drastically reduced due to post commanders making them off limits until they had changed their business practices. Mind you they still have "Juicy Girls" but they stopped the sexual practices.

2. Korean Law on prostitution

a. It was not illegal until 2005, but it was never legal. When the law went into effect to legally ban prostitution there was a huge protest by prostitutes and brothel business persons in Seoul.

3. Koreans and Prostitution

a. Korean prostitutes did exist, and still do, but their clientele is 90+% Korean, and of the other 10% Expats are the majority. These places are in the majority, the even have special "Clubs" around Seoul's governmental buildings (politicians need a way to relax after a hard days paper pushing).

4. Korean society and pointing the finger

a. Having spent my fair share of time in Korea socializing with the locals instead of staying around post, as well as being of Korean descent myself I can tell you Koreans love pointing fingers at other people for problems they caused themselves. All you have to do is look at the recent "American Beef Scandal" where no one caught any disease, or got sick from American beef, but still protested it's import because of the possibility. At the same time 2 Koreans died from Chinese milk and not a word was said. Certain segments of Koreans love hating on Americans almost as much as they love hating on the Japanese.

b. Speaking of fingers and prostitution, one of the Korean "Comfort Women" cut her finger off in protest in front of the Japanese embassy.

C. If you don't think the Koreans are crazy just remember one drunk Korean burnt down the #1 historical landmark in the country because he was mad at the government over something that was his fault.