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)

Around 450 prostitutes clad in traditional white Korean burial robes or wearing only their underwear with red paint smeared all over their bodies protested in front of the Times Square shopping mall in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo on Tuesday afternoon demanding their right to do business. Some even poured gasoline over their bodies threatening self-immolation.

Prostitutes as well as the owners of beauty salons and dress shops from red light districts in other parts of Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province who depend on their custom also took part in the four-hour protest.

Red light districts in and around the capital have been forced to close down as the areas are being redeveloped to make room for apartments and office buildings. Last month, around 200 prostitutes and pimps protested in front of the shopping mall. Pimps in Cheongnyangni in the northeastern part of Seoul have clashed with police as they try to pick up customers in front of a major department store nearby.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the Chosun Ilbo link which also has video of the protest.

Brothels posing as massage parlors are increasingly thriving in downtown Seoul and the usual ‘cat and mouse game’ between police and these brothels doesn’t work because police are often part of the part of the problem, a major local daily said Saturday.

It was 12:30 p.m., Dec. 14, the Samsung-dong area of Gangnam District in Seoul, only 100 meters away from Sunleung Subway Station. As a reporter of the local daily, Chosun Ilbo, entered a massage parlor, posing as a client, an employee there almost immediately told him.

“You need to wait for two hours to receive the ‘service’ if you don’t have an appointment.”

Only 300 meters away, there is another massage parlor that provides sex service as well.

Welcome to the Republic of Massage.   [Korea Times]

Remember you heard this shocking news here first.

In July a series of three suicides occurred in Pohang, a port city about 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The three women, who were employed at bars, were involved in a joint surety for the “slave contract” with their pimps. After one woman killed herself, the others followed suit, feeling pressure to bear the debts she left behind.

Aimed at rooting out the rampant sex trade here, the government implemented the Special Law on Sex Trade in 2004. Brothels in red-light districts were shut down and millions of pimps and prostitutes were forced to quit working.

However, the nation’s sex trade shows no sign of a recession with new, clever types of prostitution, such as barbershops and massage parlors employing prostitutes, taking advantage of legal loopholes. [Korea Herald]

These loophole are not something that most of didn’t already know was going on and were probably arguably allowed in the prostitution crackdown law in order to keep the prostitution industry going while giving the appearance of doing something. If you are wondering the sex trade remains quite profitable:

Kwak Chang-yong, chief of the female crimes division at the National Police Agency, also admitted that the sex trade remains profitable because the people involved earn more money than the potential fines imposed.

According to him, a client pays 160,000 to 200,000 won for prostitution at a massage parlor. If the shop hires three women and they service three clients a day, its profits could reach 40 to 50 million won per month.

But the fines that they face don’t exceed 5 million won in most cases, he said. No administrative measures such as suspension of business are imposed.

Their promotional skills are getting cleverer. Some brothels operate popular online websites where clients post their comments after using their prostitution services. Others scatter thousands of name card-sized flyers using a vehicle with a hole at the bottom.

Really when you look at it from the Korean government perspective the prostitution crackdown has worked out very well. It stopped criticism of South Korea by the US State Department while at the same time maintaining the prostitution industry, and bringing in increased revenue to the government with the fines. You can read more on this at the Korea Herald link.

A sharp drop in the number of Philippine women available to work in tawdry “juicy bars” in South Korea that are widely associated with human trafficking and prostitution is forcing bar owners to rethink how they should operate.

A crackdown by the Philippine government on South Korea’s importing of bar girls has led to a 50 to 60 percent drop in the number of women working as hostesses at the 200-plus bars near U.S. military bases, according to Yi Hun-hui, president of the Korea Foreigner Tourist Association, whose organization represents the owners of most of those bars.

“The past few months have been hard,” Yi said. “We hope the younger generation [of bar owners] can bring us out of the current situation as we progress into new towns. As of now, we are in what you could call a time of reflection.”

Yi said his organization is focused on remaking the juicy bars — where Filipinas work as hostesses to entice American servicemembers to buy them expensive juice drinks — into more upscale and diverse establishments.

“I’d like to change the [focus] of our clubs and bars, so that the businesses are not solely based on these working women,” he said. “Maybe like Itaewon (near Yongsan Garrison) … where there is a mix of restaurants and bars. Times are changing and so are the needs of our customers, and I’m hoping that with these new bars … we’ll be able to get out of this unpleasant spotlight.”  [Stars & Stripes]

I have long said that the USFK consolidation at Camp Humphreys was a good time to change the ville culture into one that is not exclusively a juicy girl business model.  It is good to hear that now even some of the business owners are thinking the same thing.

They answered help-wanted ads for nail salons and wound up sex slaves, forced into a life of prostitution by a malevolent madam.

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Queens woman with running the operation that farmed out young Korean immigrants to Long Island massage parlors.

Jin Hua Cui, 44, allegedly lived the high life in a million-dollar mansion at the expense of naive women who answered ads in Korean language newspapers, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

“Women would respond thinking that they were going to work at a nail salon. She then forced them into prostitution through threats of violence, intimidation and embarrassment,” Spota said.

“If they did not cooperate she would reveal to their family, friends and members of the community in Flushing that they were working as prostitutes and threaten to have Chinese gangs kill them.”

During a four-month investigation, detectives captured footage and photographs of the women – who spoke little or no English – being driven every morning to massage parlors in Huntington Station and Hicksville.

They were forced to have sex for between $60 and $80, but Cui pocketed all but the tips, authorities said. Prosecutors said at least seven women were duped.

A sign in the window of the Huntington Station space advertised a “Stimulus Plan” and “Asian Bodywork.” The johns were solicited with ads on Craigslist promising attention from “very lovely” girls.  [NY Daily News]

You can read more at the link, but nothing is mentioned on whether these girls were illegals or not.  I suspect they probably were.  It would be an interesting stat I think if someone could figure out whether or not the US visa waiver for Korea has led to an increase in prostitution from Koreans in the US?