Although South Korean law generally seems lean more conservative compared to westernized countries such as the United States of America, yet according to The Korea Women's Development Institute, the sex trade industry in South Korea was estimated to amount to 14 trillion South Korean won ($13 billion) in 2007. Let alone, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Urology at the Korea University College of Medicine in 2015, 23.1% of males and 2.6% of females, aged 18–69, had a sexual experience with a prostitute. This is happening in a country where pornography is illegal and up until 2015, adultery was a crime that was punishable by up to two years in prison for both the adulterer and their partner.
During the Korean war, the United States military used regulated prostitution services in South Korean military camp towns. Despite prostitution being illegal, the United States military sought after Korean women to be their fundamental source of sex service. The women in South Korea who served as prostitutes for the United States Military became known as kijichon (기지촌) women, which can be translated to "Korean Military Comfort Women". Even after the Korean War ended, the prevalence of sex workers in South Korea did not decline. The reason why there were so many willing South Korean women that worked as prostitutes was because the aftermath of the Korean War resulted in many families facing extreme poverty. The lack of employment and the urgency to make money produced a large influx of prostitutes as South Korean women resorted to sex work in order to support themselves and their family members.
In fact, during the 1960s, camp town prostitution and related businesses generated nearly 25% of the South Korean GNP. Over the next few decades, conflicts against prostitution arose as camp town prostitution grew concerns of public health(mostly sexually transmitted diseases), and as the women's movement against military prostitution began. Christian women and student movement activists came together to address the military prostitution issue and sought a common goal to eradicate and make prostitution illegal. My Sister's Place, also known as Durebang, was the first women's organization founded in 1986 to bring awareness to the kijichon movement. My Sister’s place also advocated for the abolishment of prostitution and against the exploitation of Korean women. My Sister's Place was also the center that provided educational and rehabilitation services for kijichon women. My Sister’s Place also put effort into activism against kijichon prostitution brought nationwide attention and inevitably became the subject for many South Korean feminist scholars.
During the early 1990s, the prostitutes became a symbol of South Korean anti-American nationalism. Horrific cases of servicemen in the United States military killing and raping South Korean women began to surface. For example, Yun Geum-i, a Camptown sex worker in Dongducheon, was brutally killed by U.S. servicemen and was found dead with a bottle stuffed into her vagina and an umbrella into her anus.
I really had no idea that the U.S army was involved with sex trafficking in South Korea. However, I now am starting to understand why lots of older Korean have an unfavorable view of the U.S army.
Comments
Hi Seokjoon,
Thanks for sharing this post on the sex-trade industry in South Korea. It was really eye-opening and saddening to see that Korean people were affected negatively historically by the Korean War and I think it is something that more people should be aware of. This reminds me of the brutal history of Japanese 'comfort women' which also affected Korean women and still is a part of the tensions between these two nations.