By Kim Tae-jong
A woman who worked at a bar in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province was found dead in an apparent suicide on March 24, the seventh death of a bar “hostess” in the southeastern city since last July.
In a suicide note, the 27-year-old said she was forced to have sex against her will and was no longer able to stand the abuse from customers and the bar owner.
Her death has brought 63 civic groups across the nation to join forces to call for a thorough investigation behind the deaths and measures to regulate the prevalence of prostitution in Korea.
“It’s not simply an individual death resulting from depression,” Shin-Park Jin-young, chairwoman of a joint committee formed by the civic groups, said. “It’s more about the exploitive nature of prostitution where women are forced to sell sex.”
She criticized the government’s recent anti-prostitution measures as only focusing on minor details without seeing the bigger picture of how women are abused in the thriving sex industry here.
The hostesses, known as “jeopdaebu,” are not only expected to serve drinks but are forced to sell sex in bars or clubs.
Following an investigation, police recently booked 101 bar owners, pimps, gangsters and loan sharks for various illegalities involving the sex business in the region.
“We concluded that the suicides were the result of forced prostitution. We will continue our crackdown to root out illegal practices” a police officer from Pohang Police Station said.
Why didn’t she quit?
Experts say most hostesses or sex workers cannot simply quit their jobs due to “slave contracts.”
As shown in the crackdown by the Pohang Police, the sex industry has developed into a well-organized business run by bar owners, gangsters and loan sharks who exploit the women, they say.
Many of them first start working at a bar or club to earn “easy money” without knowing it will put them in a trap from which they can’t get out, they say.
“Most of these hostesses regret starting the job,” Lee Jung-mi, the head of the Korean Shelter for Women, said. “They first thought they would make a lot of money by simply talking to male customers at bars or karaoke, serving drinks and singing for them. But the reality is they are forced to sell sex and they can’t say no due to money they have been loaned in advance.”
Bar owners are usually loan sharks, lending them money at ridiculously high interest rates, she said.
“These poor women will be taken hostage by this snowballing debt. All they can do is just work as slaves,” Lee said.
At the shelter, women who used to work as prostitutes prepare for a new life, but many more are still suffering from abusive treatment, she said.
How many hostesses?
According to Statistics Korea, one out of 60 economically-active women work in bars, clubs and karaoke rooms, or in red light districts.
Many experts question the accuracy of the statistics as it’s hard to estimate the real number given the secrecy of the business. Putting accuracy aside, however, they all agree with the fact that a lot of women are working to “serve” male customers in such places.
“Now, women with different backgrounds such as teenagers, university students, and housewives are becoming hostesses and/or prostitutes, lured by the temptation of easy money,” activist Yoo Gyu-jin said, who provides them with legal support.
Their workplaces are moving into residential areas, avoiding government crackdowns, and are operated in a more covert manner, he said.
To regulate the sex business in general, experts say the administration should first make an effort to reduce demand, not just try to suppress supply.
“Under current methods, the sex business will develop into various mutant forms through loopholes in the law,” Lee said, criticizing the crackdown mainly focusing on prostitutes.
She also suggested that education of children is also required to help them understand that prostitution is illegal and inhumane, as more and more teenagers are exposed to a flood of porn movies.
Reasons behind the thriving business
Experts say the thriving hostess culture has a long history.
“It’s the legacy of the male-dominant and authoritarian eras,” said Lee Na-young, a professor at the Department of Sociology of ChungAng University. “But we haven’t had a chance to change such a bad tradition and a lot of females still work to serve male customers and are exploited.”
The sex industry was fueled by a “twisted entertainment culture” through which businessmen used prostitution as a means for bribery, she said.
She also pointed out that women had few chances to be properly educated and get a decent job in the male-dominated society.
“There were only limited options for them. Simply speaking, they had to work at a factory or at a bar or something. Things have changed, but still such an exploitive and discriminative social system leads a lot of women to work to serve male customers at bars and clubs,” she said.
However, one of the biggest problems in the prostitution business is it’s almost impossible for women to earn any money to pay off their debts as most of it goes to pimps and bar owners, she added.
왜곡된 오락문화에서 매춘 번창
경상북도 포항시의 술집에서 일하던 접대부가 3월 24일 사체로 발견되었는데 자살한 것으로 추정되고 있다. 이는 지난 해 7월 이 도시에서 발생한 일곱 번째 술집 접대부 사망 사건이다.
유서에서 이 여성(27)은 자신의 의지에 반해 강제로 잠자리를 했으며 고객들과 이제는 술집 주인으로부터 받은 성적학대를 더 이상 견뎌낼 수가 없었다고 말했다.
그 녀의 죽음으로 전국 63개 시민 단체들이 단합해 죽음의 배후를 철저히 조사할 것과 만연한 국내 매춘을 규제할 조치를 취하라고 촉구했다.
시민단체들이 구성한 합동위원회 위원장인 신박 진영씨는 “우울증 때문에 죽은 단순한 개인의 문제가 아니다”며 “여성을 접대부로 몰아넣는 착취의 성격이 더 강하다”고 말했다.
신박씨는 성매매업이 번창하는 가운데 얼마나 여성들이 성적 학대를 받고 있는 지 보다 큰 그림을 보지 못하고 사소하고 미세한 것에만 초점을 맞춘다며 정부의 최근 반-성매매 조치를 강력하게 비난했다.
접대부는 술집이나 클럽에서 음료 시중을 들 뿐 아니라 성을 팔도록 강요 받고 있다.
최근 이 지역에서 벌인 수사에서 경찰은 성매매업 관련 각종 불법을 저지른 혐의로 술집 주인, 매춘 알선업자, 강패, 사채업자 등 101명을 입건했다.
포항경찰서 한 경관은 “강제 성매매로 자살 한 것으로 결론을 내렸다”며 “불법행위를 근절하기 위해 계속 소탕작전을 벌일 것”이라고 밝혔다.
전문가들은 접대부 대부분이 “노예 계약” 때문에 이 매춘업을 떨쳐버릴 수가 없다고 말한다.
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