Business is slower than before, partly because of the bad economy but also, according to government officials, due to the Anti-Sex Trafficking Law, which was enacted five years ago amid great fanfare.
However, except for cosmetic changes, the
lucrative sex trade is still very much around, experts say. The only difference is that since the law was enforced, the sex trade has evolved.
More visible outlets such as the one in Yeongdeungpo have taken the brunt of the law as have the once
notorious neighborhoods of northern Seoul's Cheongnyangni and Mia-ri Texas, which are both scheduled for urban redevelopment.
A tell-tale sign that business was, if not booming, reasonably healthy came earlier this month when the Seoul
Metropolitan Police Agency announced it would transfer hundreds of police officers in southern Seoul. The move has been widely interpreted as an effort to sever ties between the police and entertainment establishments offering sex services.
Nowadays, adding to the sex-for-cash businesses, hyugae-tel (resting rooms), where customers can call up sex workers and then later join them at another venue, are expanding rapidly, while commercial sex offered online, which is harder to track, is also growing.
Still, government officials say the implementation of the law from five years ago has helped significantly reduce the scale of the sex industry.
If you look at the numbers, coming down from a 24 trillion won industry to a 14 trillion
won one is a step forward, said Cho Sin-suk, an official at the Ministry of Gender Equality. According to ministry estimates, there were 269,000 active sex workers in Korea in 2007, a decline from 320,000 five years earlier.
To try to curb
prostitution, Korea introduced a special law in 2007 that gave the authorities the power to deny the issuance or renewal of passports to men who had a track record of purchasing sex.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice is running an education
and awareness program for men who have been prosecuted for buying sex. Last year, 17,956 men took part in the program.
One of the problems facing the police is that it is very difficult to prosecute an individual for buying sex services because
of the lack of evidence, a point highlighted by an Asia Foundation study in 2006: It has become a new trend in the sex industry to use other body parts [hands] to perform sexual service without having intercourse. Up to now, the Korean courts have
made different decisions on whether to regard this as sex trade or not, the study said.
A police officer who declined to be named admitted that the current focus of all crackdowns is geared toward the better known red-light districts as a
successful campaign is more visible to the public.
We have limited resources and there is only so much you can do, said the officer: We know that when we close the red-light districts these women will just use another venue. There is no
perfect solution.
The numbers seem to reflect the reality. In 2003, the number of men arrested for buying sex services stood at 12,737 but that number is expected to reach 40,000 this year.
Eradicating one of the oldest trades is
perhaps a Sisyphean challenge for the government and law enforcement agencies, a task made doubly difficult by the ingrained attitude among many men that commercial sex is not wrong.
Three years ago, in a survey of 448 males by the Korean
Institute of Criminology 58.5% said they had experienced buying sex at least once. In recent surveys conducted by the Ministry of Gender Equality that number still hovers around the 50% mark.
You can't put a plug on sexual desire. People who
look like they never would buy sex suddenly go wild once they get some alcohol in their system, said a salon-owner: This is almost a recession-proof business.
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