How many times have some of you heard this sob story from a "juicy girl" in the ville?:
To “Uri,†struggling to find a job in her country, a newspaper advertisement that promised her a successful career as a singer in Korea and lucrative income seemed an opportunity that would not knock twice.
The 24-year-old Filipina, who only identified herself with her alias, immediately visited an employment agency in Manila in late 2006. There she took a singing test, which was filmed and sent to a Korean agency and the Korean immigration office. Less than two months later, she flew to Korea with an E-6 visa, issued to foreign performing artists.
When the Korean agency took Uri to a club near a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, she realized she’d been cheated. Instead of a microphone, there was a pole around which she was supposed to drape herself.But she wasn’t only required to dance. Commercial sex was also part of the deal. [Joong Ang]
This is about the same story every "juicy girl" tells in order to play sympathy card that works over and over again. Does anyone suspect these girls to come out and admit to coming to Korea to be a prostitute? Of course they are all going to claim they were duped.Â
Her story was good enough for this activist group to claim camp town prostitution is worsening:
Uri was one of 45 club workers from the Philippines interviewed by My Sister’s Place (Durebang), a civic group for women working in U.S. camptowns.
The interviews are included in a survey of camptown women in Pyeongtaek, southern Gyeonggi, that the group published last month. The survey was supported by the provincial government.
You Young-nim, director of the group, said previous surveys were carried out at other U.S. camps in Korea. Their research revealed a greater number of human rights violations against foreign women in Pyeongtaek.According to You, this is because of the relocation plans for U.S. camps. The Korean government and U.S. Forces Korea agreed last year to move all U.S. Army camps in the northern Gyeonggi area and Seoul to Pyeongtaek by 2012.
“The planned expansion of U.S. bases in Pyeongtaek is encouraging people to build more clubs there. This is in contrast to the general decline of such clubs in other parts of Gyeonggi,†You said. “Unless something is done, the Pyeongtaek clubs will create more serious human rights issues.â€
So how is the fact more clubs being built around Camp Humphreys due the expansion a sign of a worsening sex trade outside of US camp towns like the article claims? I don’t because the article doesn’t provide any information to support their own claim other than to say more Filipinas are being imported into Korea. Of course there is more Filipinas being allowed into Korea because less Koreans and Russians working in the clubs. Plus the Filipinas are also working in Korean clubs which the article provides no mention of. What else there is no mention of is how red light districts in general across Korea have expanded.Â
Anyone that has been in Korea the past 10 years can tell you there is far less clubs and sex workers operating in the villes now. A lot of that has to do with the reduction in soldiers, the closing of USFK camps, along with increased focus on stopping human trafficking in the ville. This is mostly a Korean government problem for allowing these girls into Korea in the first place, but I have long advocated that USFK can do more by changing the ville culture once the move to Camp Humphreys is complete by putting all clubs with foreign sex workers off limits. By putting this information out now that would give the people thinking of opening up a club outside of Camp Humphreys notice that they better change their business model because the old juicy girl business model is no longer acceptable.Â
If not expect the juicy girl sob stories and claims of human rights violations to continue.Â
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8:29 am on January 25th, 2008 1
I dunno…20,000 KRW per drink seems like a pretty good business model to me if I were a Korean pimp, and the way the club owner associations appease the powers that be with kickbacks (for USFK civilians) and promises that they’ve had a change of heart and are no longer trafficking anymore (for USFK military) ensures a lucrative business for years to come, so to speak….
9:59 am on January 25th, 2008 2
I could care less about the club owners profitability. If USFK is totally serious about ending human trafficking in the ville then they should put all the clubs with foreign workers off limits.
I don’t think they should do it though until the relocation to Camp Humprheys is complete because USFK doesn’t need any distractions from pissed off club owners at the moment. However, once the relocation is complete and soldiers have all their families in Korea with them there is no reason to nuture an outdated ville culture like what is currently being done.
11:50 am on January 25th, 2008 3
My sentiments exactly! Bring back the Korean girls!
1:35 pm on January 25th, 2008 4
If the Korean girls come back that pretty much ends the claims of USFK sex trafficking because the Korean girls for the most part cannot claim they were duped and their passports taken from them like you see the foreign sex workers claim.
1:35 pm on January 25th, 2008 5
GIK, it’s too bad the people who make the off-limits lists do care about the clubs’ profitability.
4:52 pm on January 25th, 2008 6
With Roh out of the Blue House and Lee in, especially with Lee being so gung-ho in quickly putting his conservative agenda on display and at work, particularly moving to shake hands with the US and shut down the Unification Ministry….
…..I expect a lot of stories like this in the Korean press.
This year will test one of my long standing theories: that Korean society had become habituated to taking the US-SK alliance for granted in part by having total faith the Blue House (so long controlled by concervatives of Lee’s type) would, at the end of the day, make sure SK’s military strategic bases were covered — meaning —- that the Blue House would put SK’s national interests 1st on its list and stay close to the US…….which left the intellectuals and pretty much a large percentage of the population to stoke nationalism by bashing the same said US relationship.
The media has beaten the hell out of Roh for the past 5 years, and a good bit of the usual anti-US baiting has been produced on a much lower scale.
Let’s see how that changes over the next 12 months….
6:08 pm on January 25th, 2008 7
I remember when hooker hill was girls in their early 20’s in 2001 and all bars were on-limits. Things are not fun anymore….
6:09 pm on January 25th, 2008 8
Send the Corean reporters out to Yongju-gol, Paju, far away from any US base and see how the sex trade is doing way out there.
2:47 am on January 26th, 2008 9
This may not be in the right location, but hey, I gotta get this off my mind.
I’ve lived in Korea since November 2003 and this is the first time I’ve ever had this happen. After this incident I can see how the average Joe would react and make headlines…
TAXI 1066(plate number)
I went out tonight to play some pool with some Korean friends I’ve made in the 4 years I’ve been here, nothing I don’t normally do once or twice a month. Curfew is approching so I head back home to my Korean wife and my son, I enter said taxi, number 1066, and ride back to my building. Upon arriving I pay the fair and begin to exit the vehicle, the taxi driver says I owe him 1000 won extra for “overtime”.
I exit the vehicle and tell him, “No”
He exits the vehicle and approches me behind it and demands his 1000 won. I tell him “No”.
He begins to berate me in Hongul, and since I’ve been in Korea for awhile I understand what he is saying. “You son of a bitch” “Asshole” etc. I tell him, “No overtime fee, what are you talking about?” Of course I added “Son of a bitch” back. Well as I remember that infuriates Koreans to be spoken to like that (but of course its ok since I am American to speak to me that way). He pops his trunk and pulls out an umbrella or an ice scraper(its dark and I cannot make out exactly what it is) and swings it at me.
Now I know there is a 10% chance he will actually strike me as he is just trying to provoke me to defend myself but strike the first blow.
I stand and do nothing but put my arm up at the last second to make it strike my arm, but he withholds his attack.
He gets even more upset that I do not attack him in response to his attack, and mind you I am holding my cell phone calling my Korean wife whom is 3 floors above(which doesn’t answer!!! damn vibrate function)
He returns to his car, closes his door after a final “Kasekekia”(sp) and then puts it in reverse!!!
Now I am like “Holy shit! He may actually run my ass over and speed away!” I move so where if he did hit me if would be a glancing blow against my leg, but low and behold, he stops short, then drives away.
Now I write this because I have spend a long time in Korea, both in TDC and down in Seoul and I’ve had arguements before with Koreans but this tops it. I can now fully understand why there are “Taxi driver gets beaten by US GI’s” incidents. I now strongly believe that 95% of the incidents we hear about are provoked by the taxi drivers themselves and are not the actual fault of the GI other then him being drunk(OMFG he’s DRUNK.. that D R U N K!!!) and being a normal American and being provoked into that response.
I have been reading this forum for many moons and I believe I will start to bring my input into it as “a GI in Korea” but not like these others as I am actually on the lines where most the stories occur.
Thanks and again, if anyone can help me to report this “compensation” seeking taxi driver, I would be much obliged.
Remember TDC taxi plate number 1066.
3:31 am on January 26th, 2008 10
Ive been at Humphreys for a while and have not notice too many NEW clubs. Oh sure there are NEW clubs but they only replace older clubs that closed. In fact I would say we have a couple less clubs because a restuarnt opened at one of the club locations
6:54 am on January 26th, 2008 11
Kingkitty that was really enlighting??? Why dont you go back to your litter box and do what you do best…….
9:00 am on January 26th, 2008 12
1st time, my recommendation to all Soldiers in Area I is to boycott the Korean taxis. A combination of bus, subway, and or LPC can get you anywhere you need to go. The fact that he pulled this stunt on you is an indicator that he’s probably gotten away with it before with other Soldiers. Only when we all stop using the seebal-kay-ssekkias will they return to lawful business practices.
This may be wishful thinking because I know there’s no way an underage drinker in TDC is going to want to go back in the gate and use bus/foot at 2300 when he wants to get to Tokkari and shack up with his juicy girl…those poor fellas are sure targets of goddamn Corean cabbies.
9:00 am on January 26th, 2008 13
1st Time,
What city did this happen in? I might be able to track down some phone numbers. There are ways of reporting these crooked taxi drivers. If possible always try to get the cab driver’s name and company from the ID panel because it makes it easier to report them. My wife called the cab company for a driver in Uijongbu that tried to exhort me one time and the company had the cab driver apologize to me.
These type of things happen a lot because I have had to deal with them myself and with taxi drivers trying to extort my soldiers as well.
2:11 pm on January 26th, 2008 14
Dongduchon. I wasn’t about to try and re-enter his taxi with him so “pissed”, but I remember his plate number. 1066. I want to report it. I’ve always read stories of GI vs driver incidents, but usually figured that the kids involved were most likely at fault. It wasn’t until lastnight that I witnessed how these drivers provoke to get that “attack” repsonse out of younger soldiers. Good thing I am much older and realized he wasn’t actually going to hit me or I’d have ended up a headline I am sure. Its just pathetic that these dudes do this type of crap. sigh
8:41 pm on January 26th, 2008 15
I do not recommend going to the cops because due to experience I have found the cops in Dongducheon pretty worthless and they will probably pull a Michael Hurt on you and arrest you instead of the taxi driver.
What you can do is file a complaint with the Dongducheon City Hall.
Have your wife go to the link and post the complaint.
When my wife contacted the company of the cab driver that tried to rip me off in Uijongbu she threatened to file a complaint with the local Uijongbu City Hall and that is how I received an apology from the cab driver. I have used this threat to file a complaint with the Uijongbu city hall since then on cab drivers in Uijongbu who tried to rip me off and it has always worked.
I’m not sure about Dongducheon because I have never had something escalate to point I would have to make that threat.
9:00 pm on January 26th, 2008 16
Ahaaa…working the political ch’emyon angle…I never thought of that one.
10:30 pm on January 26th, 2008 17
GIKorea,
You know my stand on the world’s oldest profession from my many posts here and other places. You can try to kill it but in the end you just make it morph into something else. They don’t call it the world’s oldest profession for nothing. Anyway, with regard to all this brew-ha-ha over prostitution around the Camp towns, do a cleanup like they did in Times Square in New York or like they did on the Strip in Vegas. Now both places look super clean and are family friendly to the max but if you take a trip down the side streets of either place, you’ll find the same old strip clubs, hookers on the corner and video parlors that you used to find out on the main street.
With technology as it is in Korea I’m wondering why they don’t go high-tech and just take all of this away from the clubs and put it online. Easy enough to do, and less mess for the people who run it. For any of you that don’t know me that well, all this was written VERY tongue-in-cheek and should not be taken seriously….. or should it?????
Tim in Angeles sendzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
10:42 pm on January 26th, 2008 18
Tim, the Corean CourtsTM fight it even more aggressively online because it is much easier to get kickbacks and prima nocta if it’s the real deal.
1:38 am on January 27th, 2008 19
Headlines we’ll never see:
* ‘Camp Town’ Sex Trade Declines in Seoul, Tongduchon
* Civic Groups Protest Korean Human Traffickers
* Sex Trade Worsens in Korean-Only Room Salons
* GI Spends W300,000 on Drinks, Doesn’t Even Get Laid
* Survey: 80% of Taxi Drivers Cheat Foreign Customers
3:38 am on January 27th, 2008 20
Tim, I personally could care less about prostitution in general but I do not like the ville model of Koreans bringing in foreign women and then the US being accused of supporting human trafficking. If USFK wants to stop all the human trafficking claims simply put all the clubs with foreign women in them off limits which leaves only Koreans to work in the clubs.
6:55 am on January 27th, 2008 21
hey Jerk-off, I mean Masterdebaiter….Dont you have an anti-American protest to go to today.
I think your issue is you smoked some of that Thatched roof you lived under and your now one of these burned out guys who cant remember hardly anything of your youth and now you really cant remember why you got that Article 15. Well I cant Solve this for you.
Just say no to drugs
7:43 am on January 27th, 2008 22
GIKorea,
I get your point and I think your idea has great merit but I don’t see the USFK leadership taking that bold a step. It’s all a sign of the times that we live in. When I was in Korea for most of the time, you could find everyone from the lowest enlisted to the 0-4 and above crowd out partying in the Ville and partaking of the local talent. I know those times are gone forever. Hell, most of the things that I did while I was in Korea, today you’d get written up for in a heartbeat. Even the little things I did on my last tour in Korea like walking back to base from Itaewon to get some food at the Townhouse then staggering back to my apartment off-base would have gotten me in some kind of trouble under the current rules. Hehehehehe…..
10:43 am on January 27th, 2008 23
joshua good stuff!
10:43 am on January 27th, 2008 24
I think Joshua sums up the current state of juicy girl affairs in camptowns:
LMFAO!
10:50 am on January 27th, 2008 25
That is one is pretty good. I have seen guys pay $800 bucks before on a juicy and had nothing to show for it before.
10:09 am on January 31st, 2008 26
[...] the Chosun Ilbo concerned about the "worsening" sex trade outside US military installations in Korea, I thought it would be interesting to compare what GI [...]
9:40 pm on February 2nd, 2008 27
3:08 pm on July 5th, 2008 28
After seeing the increase in Prostitute realted court problems for GIs/Marines, with the latest being the false claim by a Flip Hooker in Okinawa, I have only one suggestion.
Base Commanders have to place these bars off-limits on a permanent basis that employ foreign prostitutes! Nothing else has worked over the past decades, except hitting these A-holes where it hurts most…in the pocket.
There are Far-left groups in each of these countries, which has groups that have no other agenda but to demagogue the U.S. Service member.
These Flips know exactly what they are getting into when they sign on the dotted line. They just like to use cute little names for selling it, like: Guest Relations Officer, Hostess, etc.
I have no pity for them, their eagerly awaiting parents, who know exactly what their daughter is doing, but will take that $$$ in a heartbeat, or the corrupt government officials who fleece both the prostitute and customer down throughout the process.
Commanders…You want to solve the problems? Place these establishments off limits!
8:42 pm on July 5th, 2008 29
calmseas,
There is big money coming back from those bars to some members of USFK leadership that make the decisions on what is off-limits and what the enforcement flavor of the month will be.
There are longer-term Korea-living USFK officers and senior enlisted, frequently with Korean wives, that carve out their little empires in Korea… while career-minded soldiers and airmen on a one or two-year tour find it best not to notice anything shady.
This sometimes gets exposed in cases of contracting, such as Colonel Moran and Colonel Edwards… as people with money and connections get shafted and they have the motivation and the means to “bring it to light”… as if it wasn’t obvious to begin with.
As for juicy clubs, only GI Dipstick takes it in the rear with higher prices and lower quality so who is going to make a big deal of it? GI Dipstick is so cowed and helpless… how many times have I heard, “Here is some juicy gossip but, hey, what can anyone do about it.”
…oh, yes, and America takes it in the rear, too, as we import the bottom-rung trailer trash of the Philippines and Russia… but I guess we need a generation of unwanted dysfunctional GI/whoore babies to grow up and serve fries to the rest of society.
(Most (all?) of the kids I have met between GI fathers and bargirl mothers are terrible sulky little things with few interests and bad attitudes… as they generally lack love and attention at home. I’d be interested if anyone else has an observation or opinion on this.)
If a commander dared to put a club off-limits because he felt that “single and married servicemembers didn’t need to be ripped of by predatory human traffickers preying on their immature emotions and loneliness by way of a USFK-protected prostutition monopoly” he would get a talking-to by someone higher up who suddenly would claim it wasn’t under USFK’s control (yet wouldn’t hesitate to put a club off-limits for a curfew violation).
Blick.
9:20 pm on July 5th, 2008 30
Kinda like Korean kids?
9:43 pm on July 5th, 2008 31
“Most (all?) of the kids I have met between GI fathers and bargirl mothers are terrible sulky little things with few interests and bad attitudes… as they generally lack love and attention at home. I’d be interested if anyone else has an observation or opinion on this.)”
Ick. Uncle chickenhead please don’t touch me there.
4:18 am on July 6th, 2008 32
Mark,
You are certainly on to something… but there is a difference.
The sulky little Korean kids can do differential equations with imaginary numbers by the end of middle school.
The sulky little whoore spawn aren’t very comfortable with times tables upon receiving their standard issue high school diploma
I expect sulky children to have a good, yet productive, excuse… like 14 hours of study or 18 hours of gluing soles on Nike shoes. Now that’s a reason to be sulky.
This XBox game sucks… or I funkin’ hate Korea don’t cut it.
Daddy is drunk at a juicy bar again and will yell at me if he returns home without getting any action… and Momma hiked up her mini skirt and hasn’t been around for 2 days… well, that comes close.
shattered,
“Ick. Uncle chickenhead please don’t touch me there.”
Do you want some candy, shattered?
You are, like, the coolest girl I ever met. No, don’t say that. Flat chests and acne is really attractive. I know it is for me. You have great hair. If those guys in your class don’t see it, it’s because they are, like, completely stupid. No really, you are, like, totally hot! Here, have another drink. So, like, just take off your clothes and I’ll be happy to give you an honest opinion on what you should work on so that every guy will like you and you will no longer feel soooooo alone and unloved.
Some might brag that many of these lost, low self esteem GI/whoore kids don’t mind being touched by anyone who will give them attention and free drinks… although that seems to apply to a lot of the young female human offal that infests the on-base/post high schools regardless of mother’s nationality and career choice.
There are some dirty dependents. These girls are just… dirty.
When you see the female high school dependents all tarted up and flirting around the bar districts where alcohol and hormones mix, do you suppose they are selling Girl Scout Cookies.
Not.
The one time I wrote about this, GI deleted it… as it was nastily over the top… but it was a hundred percent truthful.
6:00 am on July 6th, 2008 33
“When you see the female high school dependents all tarted up and flirting around the bar districts where alcohol and hormones mix, do you suppose they are selling Girl Scout Cookies.”
Uncle Chickenhead please don’t touch me there.
12:23 am on July 30th, 2008 34
Puh-leeze!!!
The Korean sex-industry has been importing Filipina whores for years. And it is good business. The Filipinas are less desirable than Korean women or Russian women.
Every Juicy has a cell phone. They all call home. Those girls know what they are signing up for when they come here. Most of them were probably prostitutes back home too. They all see this as their ticket to a “rich” American man-the good life. They are the predators…not the men who frequent the bars. They are liars and theives. Our friend paid for drinks (just drinks, we were with him) with his debit card. The total was like $80.00. The whore who took his payment also deducted some money for herself…like $400.00 worth. It is all a racket and the Juicies are in on it willingly. They are not victims by any standard.
Let me see…they come to Korea, live in better conditions than the jungle they left….continue to be prostitutes, but make much better money and for generally fit and clean clientelle…AND they get a chance to meet US soldiers who are naive enough to believe their sob story. Then they send all the soldier’s money home to their parents or they get their new husbands to pay for more family members to go to the US.
The only crime here is the Juicies being allowed to marry soldiers. Let them work as “entertainers”. But don’t let them get benefits from American tax dollars.
7:01 am on September 20th, 2008 35
[...] industry. Such facts only further shows how sensational past Korean media headlines of worsening sex trade outside USFK military facilities are compared to the overall level of prostitution that goes on in [...]