The Seoul Shinmun reports that the police war on prostitution that started in Seoul’s Jangan-dong is now horizontally escalating to other parts of the country, with local police either beginning crackdowns or announcing soon-to-commence crackdowns.
In some areas, however, police expect the pimps to retaliate against them, so things could get ugly.
Police in Daejeon’s Jungbu district, for instance, have asked for arrest warrants for nine pimps operating in the red-light district of Yucheon-dong. To justify their crackdown, police also went into detail about the human right abuses going on in the red-light district.
According to the cops, pimps set a 25-minute limit for the girls to finish their work; the girls are fined 30,000—40,000 won if they exceed it. One working girl said her pimp fined her 20,000 won for each kilo she gained — one month, she was fined 200,000 won.
The girls make 20—30% of total sales by contract with the pimps. They earn for their establishments about 10 million won a month, and they get a 1.7—1.8 million won salary, but since they need to pay for coffee, condoms and other such things, only about 100,000—300,000 won goes into their pockets.
The chief of Daejeon Jungbu Police Station, claiming that the girls’ human rights are being seriously violated, pledged to make the red-light district disappear. Interestingly, he’s an academy classmate of the chief of Dongdaemun Police Station (which is the one cracking down on Jangan-dong).
Busan police, meanwhile, have announced it will crack down on the Wanwol-dong red-light district. Unlike Seoul, however, Busan’s places of ill-repute apparently offer their services more on the sly, so they’ve order police to strengthen surveillance. This is to say, massage parlors and other entertainment establishments offering sexual services other than sexual intercourse (read: rub and tugs) will be targeted.
With police cracking down, pimps have started closing down their shops… at least for the time being. A police official in Busan said the crackdown on barber shops, massage parlors and other naughty places will continue till the end of the year. Gwangju police, meanwhile, said they would launch a month-long crackdown on the city’s high-end drinking places, barber shops, massage parlors and other places of ill repute (which might disappoint these two punters).
Local governments are getting into the act, too. Northern Gyeonggi-do, for instance, is working to shut down prostitution in their areas. Some 251 working girls are employed at 122 establishments in northern Gyeonggi-do — 199 at 86 places in Paju, and 52 at 36 places in Dongducheon.
(Marmot’s Note: Those numbers are probably low… seriously low)
Police cannot exclude the possibility of a counterattack by the pimps. Sure, locals in Yucheon-dong might be sending letters of encouragement to the local police chief, but pimps and area dry cleaners and supermarkets sent an appeal to Cheong Wa Dae last month asking President Lee — and you’d have to think he’d be sympathetic — to stop the police from cracking down. They also jeer the cops when they raid a place. Pimps are putting pressure on the cops, noting that the recent release of a list of cops taking bribes from pimps was just the tip of the iceberg. An official at Daejeon’s Junbu Police Station said the war on prostitution would be decided by whether the working girls themselves cooperate or not.
Interestingly, police tried to close off the red-light Seoul’s Cheonho-dong using riot cops, but their blockade apparently failed.
Marmot’s Note: First the candlelight zombies, then the Buddhist monks, now the pimps — never a dull moment under 2MB’s watch, is there?
16 Comments
The “crackdown” is manifestly unjust — why should the working stiffs of the red-light districts get it, when the chaebol only get slaps on the wrist and return to duty?
I hate to say this… but I predict this crackdown will mean more Korean pimps and hoes in the Korean diaspora including far off places like Uzbekistan as well as LA and NYC.
Well… at least it means cheaper and more plentiful hooks for us!
I knew there was a silver lining to this all…
Think of all the money the government is missing out on.
“One working girl said her pimp fined her 20,000 won for each kilo she gained — one month, she was fined 200,000 won.”
What a complete bastard… rigging the scales like that.
I’ve never understood the logic behind announcing, in advance, the scheduled end of crackdowns. In essense, the police are announcing the duration of the enforcement of law.
Regardless of one’s take on the implications of prostitution, it’s nonetheless unlawful to engage in the business of prostitution in Korea - logically, shouldn’t the police be enforcing that law, especially considering how pervasive it is? Shouldn’t they be enforcing that law more frequently than just ‘during the announced crackdown’?
red sparrow, I’d like to know if he gave her 20,000 won for every kilo she lost.
The police do this periodically here, and the businesses close down for a short time and then reopen later. It’s very Korean. We have security inspections every few months here at Samsung where we have to lock our desk drawers and shut down our computers before we leave for a few days after the announcement of inspections. The same thing happens when they make a minor change to the dress code at the local schools.
If they were serious about reducing prostitution, they would perform small-scale, low-key, unannounced, random inspections on a continual basis. That and they would focus on arresting Johns along with publishing their names and pictures in the newspapers. That would put a stop to it as one is likely to lose their job over it in addition to upsetting their wife or girlfriend (They wouldn’t be fired for the act nor for the lack of higher ups having engaged in much of the same but for bringing public shame and attention to the company - it’s grounds for dismissal, even if one doesn’t do anything wrong or illegal).
All the crackdown means is that the working girls will move from the street to the Internet, just as they did in 2005-6.
#1 “The “crackdown” is manifestly unjust — why should the working stiffs of the red-light districts get it, when the chaebol only get slaps on the wrist and return to duty?”
Amen, Brendon!
It’s the old, unfunny joke:
Steal 5,000 dollars and go to jail. Steal 5 billion and you either get
a suspended sentence or a total bailout package from the government!
please, my head hurts
Just as long as they don’t touch those working ajummas hanging at the Royal Norskie Embassy across from the Hyatt, we’ll be fine.
The timing of this crack down by the police is obvious: we have Christmas only 3 months away and the police need a new and large infusion of bribes to meet their spouse, children, and relatives’ demands for Christmas presents.
Steve, I wish that weren’t the case and that instead full scale guerilla warfare would break out on the streets of Seoul as the article in-titilates. How exciting that would be. And it would put South Korea back into the international news again, rescuing it from obscurity.
Because it’s become obvious that no matter how desperate Korea gets in trying to capture the headlines, nothing has yet worked. The mad cow hysteria, faked dog cloning, women golfers - all have failed miserably to generate a scintilla of press for Korea.
What Korea needs now is a bold move, and it appears that full scale urban warfare is what it will take. Brilliant move by some great PR genious! Wag that dog!
I hate these games the police have to play just to show they’re doing something.
I guess more hos from Korea are gonna set up shop here in New York City.
Brandon @1,
If you wanted to live in a just society, Korea is probably not the place.
On the other hand, I’m not too broken up about the crackdown. Those who jeer at the law deserves it.
Robert,
I think the Daejeon portion of your post is the same article that I was quoting in the earlier prostitution post. But the article I read said the ladies were being paid .7 ~ .8 million won, not 1.7 ~ 1.8 million.