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USFK video links 'juicy bars' with human trafficking

Human trafficking public service announcement

Source: USFK Public Affairs
By Jon Rabiroff and Yoo Kyong Chang
Stars and Stripes
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76
Published: December 20, 2012
juicy1220
Filipino women stand in the doorway of one of the juicy bars in The Ville -- just outside Camp Casey in South Korea -- as a group of soldiers walks by in July, 2009.
Jon Rabiroff/Stars and Stripes file photo
SEOUL — Two years after the U.S. State Department cited Korean “juicy bars” for suspected human trafficking, U.S. Forces Korea is promoting a video acknowledging that the bars routinely patronized by thousands of American soldiers encourage the sexual exploitation of the young hostesses who work there.
A public service video recently posted on the YouTube page of USFK’s Public Affairs Office states unequivocally that “buying overpriced drinks in a juicy bar supports the human trafficking industry, a form of modern-day slavery.”
Yet American commanders continue to allow U.S. servicemembers to patronize the bars as long as the establishments have not been caught directly engaging in prostitution or human trafficking.
USFK commander Gen. James D. Thurman declined a request to explain whether commanders are sending American soldiers a mixed message regarding the juicy bars, which are found clustered in seedy entertainment districts near some of the U.S. military’s larger bases in Korea.
The bars are primarily staffed by Philippine women who are imported to flirt with servicemembers and encourage them to buy expensive juice drinks — usually about $10 each — in exchange for more time to talk and flirt.
A 2009 Stars and Stripes investigation found that “juicy girls” who fall short of juice-sale quotas are sometimes forced by club owners to prostitute themselves to make up the revenue difference — a practice known as “bar fining.”
In addition, some of the juicy girls arrange to meet customers outside of work, where they strike sex-for-cash deals or pose as girlfriends who then hit the men up for money, purportedly to send home or pay off debts.
Since that report, the Philippine government has tried to tighten its emigration regulations in hopes of reducing the numbers of women brought into South Korea for the primary purpose of flirting with and/or prostituting themselves to American servicemembers.
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The U.S. State Department, in its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report, referenced the plight of women who work at the juicy bars near U.S. military facilities as one of its ongoing human trafficking concerns in South Korea.
The recently-posted USFK public service announcement — which aired earlier this year on AFN — puts juicy bars under a much harsher spotlight.
“Right now, young women are being lured to Korea thinking they will become singers and dancers,” the narrator says. “Instead, they will be sexually exploited in order to support their families.”
The spot ends with the words “Stop human trafficking” on the screen, along with the website address for the Defense Department’s “Combating trafficking in persons” page.
Yet USFK officials have declined to put all juicy bars off-limits.
In 2010, then-USFK commander Gen. Walter Sharp said, “The bottom line is that juicy bars … have women that are there to talk to soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines. You can’t presume that things go beyond that, which is what you would have to do if you want to put them (all) off-limits.”
Instead, USFK officials maintain they are doing all they can to make sure that juicy bars frequented by U.S. servicemembers are operating legally.
“(USFK) opposes prostitution, forced labor and any activities that contribute to trafficking in persons,” USFK officials said in a statement provided in response to queries from Stars and Stripes.
“According to (USFK) policy, all personnel are required to respect Korean laws or risk apprehension, trial and confinement.”
USFK said it enforces a zero-tolerance policy toward human trafficking by placing juicy bars caught tolerating or promoting prostitution off-limits, as well as by joining South Korean authorities on “town patrols” in the areas around U.S. bases and maintaining a hotline.
“We may determine that an establishment is engaging in human trafficking by observing a number of factors, including a high turnover of young workers, an inordinate amount of private security or the known solicitation of prostitution,” the statement said.
Yi Hun-hui, president of the Korea Foreigner Tourist Facility Association, which represents about 200 base-area juicy bars, said he was not happy about the video posted on the USFK website.
“Their logic goes over my head,” Yi said. “Everybody is equal before the law.”
He contended there is nothing wrong with a U.S. servicemember spending as much as $100 in a night to drink and talk to a young woman in a public place like a juicy bar.
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  • NormHill

    This is no big surprise, just the name has changed to "Juicy Bar".  I was with then AFKN in '71-72 and the girls were allowed on base in the NCO and presumably Officer's clubs as long as they checked their "medical" card at the gate.  In fact, a friend of mine was a Sgt Major in the 2nd Infantry Division and he was Munsan's biggest pimp...

  • John

    Watch the Korean movie "You are my sunshine"- the Korean guy pays the pimp (ex-husband) off to marry the Korean girl, maybe this isn't exclusive to GI clubs.  Kind of funny, though, because Koreans are probably wondering what the big deal is considering this is pretty common throughout Korea, dealing with Koreans or Filipinos or whoever

  • Matt

    Duh

  • DaveUS5566D1

    “The biggest issue in all this is jurisdictional issues...in a host country”...The military commanders have to work within all these…And yes this is a world-wide problem and growing with the internet…reason it may be harder to control people to people contacts are not totally necessary today.
     
    UCMJ-US Federal Law under 32 C.F.R. PART 631—ARMED FORCES DISCIPLINARY CONTROL BOARDS AND OFF-INSTALLATION LIAISON AND OPERATIONS Title 32 - National Defense…which when overseas also has the SOFA application agreements compliance…actions etc.

  • Marvin Young

    Give me a break.  There is nothing new here.  This is a world wide problem.  Where ever the military goes the girls will follow.  I do not think they are spending $100.00 a night in a bar.
    I would be worried about those ships that dock there from other countries that are looking for girls. 

  • Michael Smith

    News flash, hookers in Korea! my goodness people, its not real complicated. Where there are military, there are hookers, payday loans, and tattoo shops. get over it and move on.

  • Jay Mahal Kelker

    Mr Yi Hun-Hui knows that girls passports are taken, after the curfew for US militray the clubs open for their Korean patrons and the girls are forced into prostitution. USFK walks a thin line due to Korea being a political partner. The KTA does not tax the alcohol of the so called clubs. prostitution is illegal in Korea so How can Korea keep the blind eye while their police sit and just watch these clubs outside our military bases? I lived there 7 1/2 years and in a village outside a base. I know what is there and what we can do to stop it. But who actually listens. Bring Mr Yi to court for his blindness.

  • screendummie

    From my knowledge, Koreans aren't really into non-Korean bar girls like Filippino girls. Nor do many Koreans frequent primarily SOFA establishments.
    Prostitution is all over the country, just umm...visit one of the multi-pole barbershops, sports massages, bars, love hotels...I think you get the idea.  Yeah, it was banned around the 1988 Olympics but it still goes one beyond the military bars and clubs.
    Even if there wasn't a U.S. presence, prostitution would still remain big business in Korea. It would simply lack U.S. military customers.

  • nulloman

    Just because the pimps made Yi Hun-hui president of their slaver lobby doesn't mean anyone should listen to him.

  • screendummie

    Hush you! Doesn't the title President of Korea Foreigner Tourist Facility Association sound just legitimate to you?

  • screendummie

    Someone in Army Public Affairs thought it was a great idea to make a bad anti-something or awareness-something video. It was a probably an officer that probably got some sort of award by forcing some specialist or sergeant broadcaster into making this junky video.

  • Piglet

    The US is not in Korea for the benefit of Koreans. During the 1990s SecDef Perry let the cat out of the bag when he stated that, even if the two Koreas merged into one and there was no more North Korea, US military forces would remain.
    Unknown to most, the US has had a military presence in that part of the world (primarily China) going back to the mid-1800s. If you want to know what their uniforms looked like, you can buy a copy of "US Armed Forces In China 1856-1941" from Osprey Publishing. During the first half of the 20th century, the US military presence in China was the largest overseas basing of US troops until the post-WW II period in Europe. The Japanese forced most US units in China to leave the country prior to WW II and took the remaining troops as POWs after the war began. US military forces returned after WW II but had to leave in the late 1940s as the Nationalists lost their hold on the country. During the Korean War Gen. MacArthur expressed his desire to invade China and topple the new government, which he believed would only need a good shove. If successful (extremely unlikely), there is no doubt this would have led to a renewed military occupation there. Since a return to basing units in China is not possible, Korea serves the purpose well.
    The US is determined to keep military forces in that part of the world. Even if North Korea disappeared tomorrow, US forces would remain and a new "official" rationale would be created.
    Even if the US had kept a military presence in South Korea after WW II, there would still have been a Korean War. A closer look at the country's history during the post-WW II period, to include the rebellions in the South, the mutiny in the ROK Army, and the turmoil taking place from one end to the other, shows it was guaranteed there was going to be a war, with or without the sponsorship or ideology of major foreign powers.
    And now down to a personal level: Folks, if your spouses get stationed in Korea, there is an extremely high probability they will have "fun" with other service members or local women while they are there. If you talk to those who were stationed there decades ago, you'll find that this epidemic of infidelity by both men and women has been going on for a very long time.

  • phil_am

    You know the gullible reporters and State Department lackeys who believe "young women are being lured to Korea thinking they will become singers and dancers" and "forced by club owners to prostitute themselves" trip me out.  Every one of these girls know exactly what they are getting in to when they go to Korea, its widely discussed at the OFW application sites and amongst the people in the Philippines. Of course they tell Mom, Dad, everyone at home that they are different going there to sing, dance, or work in a restaurant; and the gullible customer, reporter, or other listener that they were tricked in to it; but they all know exactly where they are headed and what they are going to be doing.  One of two things on their mind, catch an American Husband or make enough money from the prostitution that they can go back to the P.I. with enough money for a good life, with no one actually knowing what they did in Korea -or at least able to prove it.   

  • Jay Mahal Kelker

    Phil you realy do not have a clue, you hit on some girls all around the world that do that, but due to the promoters ,there are way to many innocence girls who get caught up in it, I've been ,seen it. This is why you sway people away from thinking there is a REAL problem.

  • phil_am

    Jay, let me assure you I do have a clue and have been there seen it and just for the record phil_am stands for Philippine American, not that that makes me an expert but I dare say I've seen as much or more than you.  Ever visit Angeles or Subic back in the day?  For that matter Angeles today?  There are still buko bars with buko beautiful girls available.  Let me assure you voluntary prostitution flourishes there today. No need for a promoter or anyone else to trick anyone in to going to Korea when they can recruit there. Only a deaf, blind girl in the Philippines discussing going to Korea does not know why there going there.  They spend hours in the cue, getting their passports and Visas and nothing the girls like or do more than chat.  In Angeles they can hope to pull a wrinkled 60 year old man; in Korea they can pull a pogi 20 year old Americano who will support them and their family.   I've been there seen it and can assure you I know what I'm talking about.  

  • Eric

    Everyone who's been stationed in Korea knows that the juicy bars there support human trafficing.  I don't understand how USFK can ignore it.  It's everywhere.  If these establishments are not involved in human trafficing, then why don't they have young Korean women working there to drink juice and conversate with Soldiers?  Why do they need to bring in Filipina women to do this?  All evidence points toward human trafficing.  Yet every year we are all subjected to CTIP (Combating Traffic in Persons) training, meanwhile some of our military's highest commands allow this sort of thing to happen right under their noses, and it's legal.  Yet prostitution on the other hand is not legal.  But not all prostitution supports human trafficing.  Anyone who has made the short hike up Hooker Hill in Itaewon (yes, there are a few respectable bars there amongst all the brothels) can see that the prostitutes that stand in the street trying to attract the attention of the young GIs are mostly all Korean.  They are probably working there to help put themselves through school, or to support their families, and since it's their country, they can go home anytime they want.  The Filipinas at the juicy bars, on the other hand, cannot, because their "bosses" take their passports and make them pay off their travel expenses.  Not all prostitution is human trafficing, but 99% (more likely 100%, but I'm accounting for margin or error) of juicy bars involve human trafficing.  USFK has no problems putting Hongdae off limits, yet most of the bars and clubs in Hongdae are legit.  Yet they still allow service members to frequent juicy bars....

  • Friend Ken

     Eric, when I was there, the girls working in the clubs were Korean.  Only Philipinos I can think of in Korea at that time, were the different bands.

  • wdobarzy

    Eric, up until the 2000's Korean woman did work in the clubs, they also work in the clubs here in the states also that are owned by Koreans, outside the military bases.

  • Eric

    There are a lot of clubs that hire Korean women as bar maids or whatever, even today.  Mostly in Seoul, in areas frequented by foreigners such as Itaewon and Hongdae.  There aren't a lot of juicy bars in Seoul, at least not when I was there from 2005 to 2007.  Most of the juicy bars are in the ville areas outside of the outlying bases such as Camp Casey and Camp Humphreys.  I was always told that the Filipinas started coming in around 2002, and that before that they had Russian juicy girls, but the Korean government kicked most of them out around that time.  I didn't know that Korean girls worked there prior to 2000, however it makes sense.  The country used to be fairly poor prior to the mid 1980s, and as is the case with just about all poor countries, the people (especially women) will do almost anything to get by.  As the country improves its financial standing, and poverty decreases, there are less people willing to do certain things for money.

  • maschrack

    PI girls came in the mid 90s, that is when the Korean economy really started taking off and the Korean girls mostly started moving out of the clubs; I was there 1995-2009.  Russian girls came in around early mid 2000 and drove most of the PI girls to the smaller clubs.

  • helo5747

    I'm confused.  During a twenty year span I spent a total of about 8 years in Korea.  I went to Korea the first time in 1975.  I left Korea the last time in 1995.  When I was there the ONLY women working in the bars were Koreans.  Are you saying virtually NO Korean women work in the G.I. bars in Korea anymore?  

  • maschrack

    mostly no, the poorer ones may but the average Korean has more money than most of the GIs these days.

  • John

     Not exactly, Google "CIA Factbook"

  • maschrack

    I have talked to an owner of a club before and asked why they don't have Korean Girls in the clubs.  Answer; 1. to expensive 2. turnover 3. most don't want their local friends to know they work there, so they work in the less visible ones and the ones frequented by Korean men 4. you can not control them. 5. if something happens to the girl there is a lot more shock from the locals if it is a Korean girl rather than a TCN 

  • Eric

    All of the points you make for why Korean girls no longer work at the juicy bars sound valid.  However, the one I find the most disturbing is #4, the fact that the bar owners "can not control them."  The fact that they even need to control their employees in that way sounds quite a lot like human trafficing to me.  I have known Soldiers while I was there (2005-2007) who have bought out their juicy girlfriend's contract so that she would no longer have to work there, and then she could marry him.  Sometimes this can cost upward of $5,000 or more, and will often cost the Soldier everything he has, or he will make payments as he gets the money.  This is illegal, because even through he thinks he's doing her a favor by paying for her freedom, just paying for her, in itself is supporting human trafficing.  It still baffles me to this day where USFK draws that line.  We are all briefed during in processing that buying out a juicy girl's contract is supporting human trafficing, but Soldiers are still allowed to go there to buy out her contract one drink at a time. 

  • de_day

    Isn't it more likely that "you cannot control them" is meant in the same way young American GIs who are "tricked" into marrying Koreans and bringing them back to the states often regret it afterwards because "they cannot control them"?
     
    Sure, there are exceptions to this (like 25-year happily married "Friend Ken" who posted a related comment several months back). But the stereotypes of Koreans being unreasonably temperamental / irritable and hard to get along with do exist for some valid reasons. We all know that in general, men are from Mars and women are from Venus-----but what planet do Korean women come from? The Klingon homeworld?
     
    At the same time, reason # 4 is probably tied to reason #2 (turnover). And if the Korean bargirls are able to quit, well, then it's not human trafficking, right?

  • Friend Ken

     de_day, thanks for the honorable mention, but on 8 Mar just past, it was 40 years.

  • Michelle

    It's not just Korea. When Japan has a quarter million Filipinas here on "entertainment" visas yet makes it hard for law-abiding people to stay for any length of time, you know something's amiss. 

  • de_day

    I believe Japan changed things up a few years back so that nowadays the majority of Filipinas working in hostess clubs in Japan have other types of visas because they are either married to Japanese (or in some cases, American GIs) or separated from the same (but not yet divorced), have Japanese "anchor" children, etc.

  • Otis

    Oh, for the old days and the "tag system" in the ville....

  • wdobarzy

    Are you talking about the VD cards?

  • Otis

    No.  When you went into a bar in the ville the women would wear tags.  Ones wearing white tags were available.  Ones wearing read tags worked as part of the bar staff.  Ones wearing black tags were someone's wife or girlfriend. 

  • Friend Ken

     Never heard of this before.  When was this happening?

  • Neal99

    Does anyone think that in 60 years South Korea should have made enough progress to defend itself from the North.  If so then why is the United States still there? To keep the economy going. to patronixe the jucy bars to pay rent on off base apartments.  Time to pull back leave the country and let South Korea fend for itself.  We Americans spend more money taking care of forgien countries than we do on our own.

  • phil_am

    A reasonable person says we're there to monitor happenings in China and to have a logistics base if things ever went wrong way between us and China.

  • maschrack

    Of course they can defend themselves probably more so than most other countries in the region except China of course.  We have strategic interests that go beyond simply defending attack from the North. Yeah we are a cash cow off post/base but that is just good business on their part.  You go to any community outside of a military installation stateside and it is same thing they exploit the military for all they have.

  • Eric

    It's strategic.  Yes, South Korea can more or less defend themselves, but there are other less friendly countries in the region (i.e. North Korean, China, etc.)  We learned our lesson after WWI.  We pulled out of Europe after defeating Germany mostly on French soil, only to have to come back almost 25 years later to do it all over again... so we decided to stay.  After WWII, Japan pulled out of Korea.  The US and Russia split the country into two sectors, north and south, with Russia supporting the north and the US supporting the south.  In 1948, both North and South Korea stood up their separate forms of government.  In 1949 the US pulled out of South Korea, and in 1950 we were right back over there to defend them from the north.  Had we not left to begin with, there may not have even been a war.  Our close military partnerships ensure that our allies stay our allies, and our enemies don't invade our allies.

  • cowboy8882

    South Korea can indeed defend herself. Part of the military
    recruitment strategy is being able to be stationed and travel to many different
    countries. We don’t spend as much as you may think in Korea. South Korea pays a huge about of the bill for Americans being stationed there. Yes, there is the
    housing and COLA allowance but is for the service member and good for morale.  And let’s not forget learning and training with our allies.
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