The Australian state with the largest Korean population in the country is currently investigating prostitution involving Korean women, according to a member of the state’s parliament.

Victor Michael Dominello, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, said that the investigation started at the request of the Korean multicultural committee he set up.

More than 1,000 Korean women are estimated to be involved in prostitution in Australia, a number that increased sharply in recent years, according to data from an Australian civic group. Some data say that about one-sixth of all women providing sex for money in Australia are Korean.

As the numbers grew, the prostitution issue emerged as a diplomatic concern between Korea and Australia.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

For anyone that has been to Sydney the Korean prostitutes working around Kings Cross are pretty obvious.  The issue isn’t so much that so many Korean women are working as prostitutes but that many of them are being trafficked into Australia on holiday visas and supposedly coerced into prostitution.

Investigators believe that as many as 21 women were brought by U.S. Secret Service and military personnel to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, last week during a night of carousing, a dramatic increase in the number of women previously disclosed by government officials.

Officials said 11 Secret Service and 10 military personnel are suspected of misconduct that took place before President Obama arrived in Colombia for an economic summit. Initial reports suggested that the military personnel, some of whom were confined to their rooms after the scandal broke, had violated curfew, while the Secret Service members had engaged with the women, who were allegedly working as prostitutes.

But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Tuesday that Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told her that the preliminary investigation has determined that 20 or 21 women were brought to the hotel last Wednesday night. Agency investigators in Cartagena have obtained copies of the women’s identification cards, which they were required to present at the hotel, and are attempting to interview some of the women, said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), head of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

King said investigators have determined that none of the women were minors.  [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link but this sounds much like when Fox News did their big expose’ on prostitution in Korea back in 2002.  People were shocked about the prostitution going on in Korea even though it had been going on since the 1950′s and by the time Fox News did their report it had greatly scaled down compared to prior decades.  Since that report it has scaled down even further.  By the way does anyone know if USFK is still showing that Fox News report to new personnel as part of inprocessing?

I have never been to Columbia but I did have a real good conversation with a US military servicemember who did, so take for what it is worth, but he told me that Columbia is filled with women looking to hook up with Americans.  He said it was kind of like going to Angeles City in the Philippines.  Has any ROK Heads been to Columbia and can confirm this?  So it appears that what these guys were doing is something that had been going on for a long time and everyone turned a blind eye to it until the media got hold of it like what happened with prostitution in Korea.  What is most troubling about this case is that this isn’t Private Tentbag buying time with a Juicy Girl but instead people tasked with protecting the President.  All these Secret Service and military personnel should have known to not take such actions on a mission like this.  What will be interesting to find out is if these Secret Service and military personnel were given specific briefings about prostitution in Columbia and decided to ignore it or not?

When Klarys (an alias), a 27-year-old from the Philippines, applied to come to Korea on an entertainment visa, she envisioned herself doing what she always wanted ― singing onstage.

But she says the E-6 visa was taken by her Korean promoter upon arrival and that the vision rapidly began to slip away. And very quickly, she says, so did control over her life.

The club she was taken to outside a U.S. military installation had little to do with music. Rather, she said it was a gateway to a seedy industry of entertaining soldiers ― a world where activists claim sex trafficking is not uncommon.

“For me, it was an opportunity to go abroad,” Klarys told The Korea Times. “But I got here and I was dancing on a pole. We were forced to go out (and have sex with) with whoever. You can’t say no.”  [Korea Times]

Considering how long women from the Philippines have been coming to Korea she likely knew full well she was going to be working in a sleazy bar.  As far as prostitution she can say no but the way the club system is set up she will likely make no money if she can’t sell the drinks:

She estimated that thousands of them now work in “juicy bars” outside the bases, saying soldiers ― despite the military’s “zero-tolerance policy” toward prostitution ― buy glasses of juice in order to spend time, flirt and dance with the women. Those women who fail to meet a quota for juice sales are often subject to “bar fines,” meaning they are told to sell their body to account for the shortfall, she said.

I usually say read the rest at the link but don’t bother because it is more of the same of juicy girls saying they were virgins before coming to Korea and expecting to sing and dance and not be involved in prostitution which then forced them to get hooked on drugs.  If you can believe it they make a claim that is all the girls from the Philippines that go to Japan, sing and dance and are not involved in prostitution.  So the article is the typical media BS to bash USFK with when the solution to human trafficking is quite simple, get the ROK government to stop issuing the entertainer visas to women in the Philippines.  But wait that would also dry up the far larger supply of Filippinas sent to work in Korean brothels, which the article makes no mention of.

I continue to maintain that the best way to handle the issue of human trafficking is to put clubs that hire third country nationals off limits.  Most of the Filipina’s working in these clubs know what they are getting into and human trafficking in general has been greatly reduced in Korea in recent years.  However, as long Filipinas are working in juicy bars there will continue to the perception of human trafficking that will follow USFK that the media will continue to jump on.  By forcing the bars to employ Korean workers it would pretty much make the human trafficking issue go away because Korean nationals would be much harder to traffic in.  The people that will lose if bars with 3rd country nationals are put off limits are the bar owners that will make less money because they will have to pay Korean women more money for doing the same thing these Filipina women are doing.

This is a world where you can buy anything if you have the money. There is nothing that cannot be obtained from a variety of goods to diverse services. Even “husbands” can be rented.

The “hourly-paid” husband service is thriving these days after being first introduced in Georgia two years ago, landed in Korea in January last year.

The services cost 20,000 won to 30,000 won an hour on average. However, the charges vary depending on what kind of service is offered and how difficult it is to provide. The exact amount is settled through consultations and agreement. The services are given when male assistants accept the settled price.  [Korea Times]

Lee Eun-ju, a loan officer at a savings bank, was shocked to see a huge red light district, known as Yongjugol, right next to a police station and military base at this border town when she came here to check the appraisal of a house.

A pimp showed up in place of the owner of a two-story house registered as a residential building as she asked why barely-dressed women in four-inch heels were standing behind a glass window as if on sale at a supermarket.

She made it clear that no loan could be approved for the brothel, but wondered how prostitution, which is illegal here, could be so openly practiced.

“It seems obvious that the police have turned a blind eye to the local sex industry, especially for servicemen wanting to buy sex, possibly due to bribery or undue pressure from decision-makers,” she said.

Yongjugol operates virtually around the clock. About 10 establishments are open for business during the daytime and some 60 operate at night, most of which continue to lure customers until 6 a.m.   [Korea Times]

There is a lot more to read at the link about prostitution in Paju, but I had to laugh at the final passage in the article which blames prostitution in Paju on the prior US military bases near the town.  I can guarantee there was prostitution in Paju long before USFK got there. Also the reporter is making a big deal about prostitution near a ROK Army base when there is prostitution in nearly every city in Korea; why doesn’t the reporter criticize these other areas that primarily civilians frequent?

Expats can commonly be found in Seoul’s large array of bars and restaurants on any given weekend. But on one recent Saturday, a group of 50 expats spent their night roaming the streets of Seoul, not looking for a fun night out, but rather to pick up cards and fliers advertising prostitution.

The flash mob, which was organized through Facebook, called for all foreigners in Seoul to give a voice to the voiceless.

“We know that this isn’t the most effective way to do things, but with a big group of foreigners, it’s the easiest thing we can do,” said Korean native Chung Yoon-ju, one of the flash mob organizers. “Just by us being here, people are becoming more aware. One guy came up to us and shook my hand. He was very encouraging for what we’re doing.”

The group targeted Gangnam and Seollung, the southern and richer part of Seoul, where people are paid to hand out and scatter business card-sized ads and fliers soliciting sexual services. Such activities have long been complained against, especially by parents who sometimes walk through the streets with their children and people who find the featured photos offensive.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but basically all the flyers they picked up and took to the police station led to nothing being done.  If anything I wish the police would arrest the people who throw those flyers around for littering because of the mess they make.   Anyway I think Robert Koehler makes some good points on his site in regards to this protest creating an “us versus them” type of scenario, but I think as long as these protesters don’t have a condescending tone towards Koreans there won’t be any issues with such a protest by foreigners.  On a side note the people involved best be careful about how much attention they do draw because this could be interpreted as political activity and thus a possible violation of their visa status depending on what type of visa they have.

Eleven South Korean nationals were reported to have been engaged in work as prostitutes in Australia since 2006 while under the working-holiday visa program, a government report said Thursday.

The report by South Korea’s foreign ministry came after Seoul and Canberra agreed this week to bolster cooperation on investigating the alleged trafficking of some Korean women in Australia and coerced prostitution by abusing the visa program.  [Yonhap]

International students enrolled in several well-known universities were found to be involved in prostitution following a police crackdown, Yongsan Police said yesterday.

The six female students, from China, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, and the 59-year-old proprietor of a Korean “karaoke” establishment, where liquor and women are available, were detained and are under investigation.

Police said the students were lured by the proprietor into prostitution with promises of high wages and the opportunity to buy Korean cosmetics at a discount.

The proprietor had posted on online forums frequented by foreign exchange students to entice women to his business.

“If your Korean language skill is around level 4, you will be able to work at a bar as a server at a rate of 15,000 won ($13) an hour, and you will also be able to buy luxury-brand cosmetics cheaply,” one posting read.

While the posts advertised the establishment as a bar, the proprietor would redirect them to his karaoke, urging them that along with entertaining customers in private rooms, they could “make a lot of money” by entering prostitution, police said.

The students earned 60,000 won for working two hours in private rooms at the establishment, and 150,000 won per customer if they engaged in sexual acts, the investigation revealed. They also sold the discounted Korean cosmetics they bought to their friends in China.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines has apologized for saying that 40 percent of male tourists visit the country for sex.

Ambassador Harry Thomas sent a cellphone text message Friday to Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who was on a visit to Vietnam, expressing regret for his comments, foreign affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said.

“I should not have used the 40 percent statistic without the ability to back it up. I regret any harm that I may have caused,” the Daily Mail quoted Thomas as saying in the text message, which Hernandez forwarded to journalists.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Tina Malone said Saturday that Thomas ‘offered his deep regret’ for his comment.

She said the United States would continue to be a ‘strong and dedicated partner of the Filipino people in combating the global scourges of human trafficking and sexual tourism.’

Thomas’ remark last month angered some officials who questioned its basis and said it tarnished the country’s image.  [Korea Times]

Some 400 prostitutes hold a rally in front of the Chuncheon City Hall in Gangwon Province on May 31, calling for a delay of crackdowns on brothels and measures to support them if their shops are closed. (Yonhap)