Category: Prostitution

According to the article since 2013 the police have closed a total of 187 brothels in Gangnam to include the 27 they just closed:

Gangnam-gu removed 27 illegal brothels from near schools and residential areas during the first half of this year, according to the Gangnam-gu Office on Monday.

Twenty-three were in residential areas, while four were near schools.

“We will continue to cooperate closely with the Gangnam and Suseo Police Station to get rid of illegal brothels,” Lee Hee-yeon, who heads the urban advancement office.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the ROK military like the US military has taken a very strong stance against prostitution:

Three Korea Military Academy (KMA) cadets were expelled a day before their graduation for allegedly visiting prostitutes, the elite school said on Friday.

“We received intelligence regarding their illegal activity on Monday and it was proven grounded through an internal investigation,” a KMA official said.

The official said the three visited a “massage parlor” in Gangnam, an entertainment district in southern Seoul, on Feb. 4. “One of the cadets admitted having sex there, while the others claim they didn’t, arguing they paid money but didn’t (have sex) out of a sense of guilt,” the official said.

A separate police investigation is under way, the official said.

The KMA had it 73rd commencement on Friday with 248 graduates who will be commissioned as Army second lieutenants. The highest distinction, summa cum laude, went to female cadet Lee Eun-ae.   [Korea Times]

According to the article the Cheongnyangni 588 red light district got started during the Korean War since it was the location of a station that transported soldiers north to the front lines.  After the war the location remained a major red light district for Seoul.  Now it will soon become an apartment development as the brothels are all being evicted:

The brothel area has long been called just “588,” although it is unclear where this name came from. Some historians say it was derived from one of the back alley’s address, while others say the area used to have a bus service with that number.

Now the district is counting down its final days.

A redevelopment project will begin later this year — tall luxury buildings will occupy the 41,586 square meters of land — and developers are evicting the women.

The demolition and eviction of the remaining 588 zone will begin next month.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Another sex club in Seoul has been broken up according to the Korea Times.  I had to chuckle when I read that even the janitor got a jail sentence.  Fortunately for all of them the sentences were suspended so they don’t have to actually go to jail if they stay out of trouble:

This is an imaginative scene at an adult sex club in Seoul called “Voyeurism Club” based on what the operators revealed in a criminal court on Dec. 4.

Seoul Central District Court punished the operators of the club that fed the sexual appetites for perverts, allowing visitors to have sex in an open space or watch others doing so.

The court sentenced the club’s chief operator, surnamed Won, 43, to 18 months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 15 million won ($12,000) fine for infringing the laws of punishing acts related to the sex.

Targeting those with “abnormally obscene desires,” Won managed the bar-like club in Gwanak-gu that he rented twice a month from May 2014 until last July.

The court said he paid two housewives to dance nude in front of visitors and provide sexual service to them.

He also offered 100,000 to 150,000 won admission to members of an online community for couples and single male office workers and asked them to act as prostitutes.

The court also sentenced the club’s pimp, 46, and janitor, 45, to six months’ jail, suspended for a year.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

If you are going to commit illegal prostitution in the US, having your massage parlor named “The Texas Doll House” and having a manager named “Kum Shugars” is probably not the best cover:

Fifteen women were arrested and eight brothels were shut down last month in northwest Dallas as part of a sex-trafficking investigation, authorities say.

The women, all of whom were owners or managers of massage parlors in northwest Dallas, were arrested in stings Aug. 26. Most of the women were booked into the Dallas County Jail on charges of aggravated promotion of prostitution, a third-degree felony.

The charge carries a minimum of two to 10 years in prison if convicted, and a fine of up to $10,000.

Two of the arrested women, Connie Su Moser and Kum Shugars, are charged with using a facility of interstate commerce in aid of a racketeering enterprise for using cellphones and the internet to promote prostitution at Dallas Doll House, according to the North Texas Trafficking Task Force. Moser, the owner of Dallas Doll House, also faces one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.  [Dallas News via reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but for those who are wondering; Ms. Kum Shugars must have been doing a good job running the place since it had positive reviews:

Services rendered, according to the anonymous reviewers, are indistinguishable from what one might expect at a brothel that wasn’t pretending to be something else.

CBJs (oral sex with a condom), CFS (vaginal sex with a condom) and DATY (oral sex performed by the client on the Doll House employee) are all mentioned multiple times, along with physical descriptions of the women providing the services.

“It’s a classic AMP [Asian massage parlor],” user Bill M says. “Decent looking girls there the time I went about 2 months ago.”  [Dallas Observer]

The owner of the massage parlor Connie Sue Moser appears to have been doing quite well for herself with her whole in the wall massage parlor business:

Moser, the owner of the Doll House, was arrested at her Lewisville home. Shugars, a manager at the parlor, was arrested at Dallas Doll House. Both were charged with use of a facility of interstate commerce in aid of a racketeering enterprise.

The task force also seized roughly $420,000 from Moser’s home, $70,000 from her bank accounts and her 2015 Lexus.  [WFAA]

You can read more at all of the above links.

It makes me wonder how many of these type of bars are operating in Seoul especially since according to the article the bar is perfectly legal:

A clandestine bar where couples openly have sex and watch other couples having sex has been operating in the middle of Seoul, a TV network reported Thursday.

Couples in their 20s to 40s hand in their mobile phones and other belongings before the sex party, which includes group sex and swapping.

The bar is on the third floor of a building in the middle of Hongdae, one of Seoul’s busiest night-out areas, according to TV Chosun.

There are shower booths and cleansers for women to use after sex.

The bar even runs a blog where readers can find explicit reviews, a bulletin board aimed at foreigners, and photos of a dressing room that holds erotic clothing, TV Chosun said.

The bar has remained confidential for seven years, thanks to strict security checks. It is open only to members, who must make a reservation. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible case of rape and forced prostitution in Gwangju:

Police requested arrest warrants for two men who locked up a runaway teenager and allegedly forced her into prostitution, Wednesday.

The Gwangju Dong-bu Police said the men, aged 20 and 18, had invited a 17-year-old runaway they befriended via a chatting app to live with them, then turned violent once she moved in.

The victim stayed with them for 12 days.

Police requested arrest warrants for two men who locked up a runaway teenager and allegedly forced her into prostitution, Wednesday.

The Gwangju Dong-bu Police said the men, aged 20 and 18, had invited a 17-year-old runaway they befriended via a chatting app to live with them, then turned violent once she moved in.

The victim stayed with them for 12 days.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

Is it accurate to say that someone was “forced” into prostitution when the soldier in the below article willing decided to work for the pimp for financial gain?  For sake of argument if a woman decided to break the law by robbing houses while a man sat in the get away car outside would we say the woman was forced into burglary?  To me it seems they are both equally guilty.

A man who forced a 19-year-old Fort Bragg soldier into prostitution last year threatened to tell the soldier’s commander about her exchanging sex for money, new court documents say.

The court documents also revealed that the soldier was the victim of sex trafficking as a juvenile.

Jibri Quandel Thomas, 23, of the 3200 block of Brookemere Place, was charged by the Fayetteville Police Department in connection with exploiting the soldier. He turned himself in to Fayetteville police detectives Jan. 11 and was indicted in federal court Jan. 28.

A superseding indictment in federal court filed April 25 charged Thomas with two counts of transporting for prostitution and racketeering for prostitution.  [Fayetteville Observer]

You can read the rest at the link, but it sounds like this soldier probably should have never been in the Army in the first place considering she was a practicing prostitute at the age of 17 before she even enlisted.  Joining the military was an opportunity for this soldier to turn her life around; it is unfortunate she did seize that opportunity.

Gusts of Popular Feeling has a translation of this Joong Ang Ilbo article about a 20 year old man found guilty of prostitution with a 13-year old run away girl in Uijongbu:

Korean love hotel image via Flickr user For 91 Days.

A man in his twenties who even received the motel fee from a 13-year-old schoolgirl found guilty of prostitution

A man in his twenties who met a 13-year-old runaway schoolgirl for sex but argued he wasn’t guilty and said that “The schoolgirl paid more of the motel fee so it wasn’t prostitution” was found guilty.

Seoul Eastern District Court announced on the 16th that is that it [sentenced] Mr. Lee (22), who had been charged with contravening the Law for Sexual Protection of Children and Youth, to a one-year sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to attend 40 hours of sexual assault treatment classes.

Mr. Lee came to know A (13) on June 10, 2015 via a smartphone chatting application. Learning that A had run away and needed a place to sleep he promised, “If you come to my house, I can put you up,” and the next morning he called her out to the Uijeongbu Station area.

When he met A, Lee said, “It’s hot right now, so let’s go and rest,” and took A to a nearby motel. The motel fee was 20,000 won but Lee had only 8000 won in his pocket. Lee asked A, “Can you pay a little bit?” and got 10,000 won from her and, after getting a 2000 won discount, paid the motel fee.

After they had sex, Lee said, “My parents came home early so I can’t put you put you up,” and left A and returned home.

In court Lee claimed that “Since I had never promised to put her up at my house and I paid 8000 won of the motel fee but A paid 10,000 won, it wasn’t buying sex.”

Subsequently he protested that “Since A looked 20ish in her chatting program profile photo, in which she was wearing makeup, I didn’t think she was a minor.”

However, the court said, “It doesn’t make any sense that you saw her face and didn’t know she was 13.” “Seeming to offer to put up a runaway victim at your house and meeting [her], you acted to buy sex to satisfy your sexual desire, and the fact that even after that you left her and ignored the fact that she was penniless because of you makes the nature of the crime very bad.”

It added, “Because she expected that the defendant would give him a place to stay afterwards, she readily gave 10,000 won.” “The defendant fully acknowledged the fact that he promised to provide payment for things like a place to stay and that, expecting this, A acceded to sex.”

A court official said, “The amount of money when providing payment for prostitution does not matter; if it’s true that payment is provided, then [the fact of] prostitution is established.”  [Gusts of Popular Feeling]

I guess the moral of this story is that if you are going to trick a thirteen year old runaway girl to have sex with you make sure she pays for the entire hotel bill.  That is because as Gusts of Popular Feeling discusses in his article the age of consent in South Korea is 13 years old.  Read the rest of the article to better understand why the age of consent is so low.

It looks like New York City has a few less Korean prostitutes today.  I wonder how long this will last?:

Joint federal and local Police authorities cracked down on Korean brothels in New York’s Koreatown. According to the police, many of the women who worked at these brothels came from Korea thru a visa waiver program.

The group that operated these businesses attracted customers through elaborate internet website and operated in 11 different premises by disguising to be lawful spa establishments. The arrested group was found to have more than 70,000 customers in a database.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.