Koreans outnumber all other nationalities in patronizing prostitutes in Southeast Asia, according to a study by the Korean Institute of Criminology (KIC) based on information from various international sources.
In addition to field studies in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, KIC compiled reports by the UN, the US and other sources, reviewed arrest records at local police stations and interviewed local social workers, bar workers and residents. All sources support the conclusion that Koreans outstrip even tourists from the far larger nations of Japan and China in visits to prostitutes.
For starters, Koreans are among the top visitors of many southeast Asian nations. The Philippines received 920,000 Koreans in 2011, more than any other foreign nationality. Vietnam received more Koreans than any other nationality except Chinese. Cambodia received 340,000 Koreans, second only to those from neighboring Vietnam.
A 2010 report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime cited Koreans the biggest clients of child prostitutes in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. That conclusion was reinforced by the US State Department’s annual report on human trafficking which said Korean men are the main clients of child prostitutes in Southeast Asia and Pacific islands. It also noted that the Korean government has done nothing to curb the trend.
Korea has done so little that 77.7% of Korean tourists didn’t even know that paying for sex overseas violates Korean law, according to a KIC survey of 900 tourists conducted last October. A slightly higher percentage (78.5%) felt the chances of being punished were low. This lack of a sense of wrongdoing is a main cause of the trend, KIC suggested in its report.
The report also blames the pervasiveness of the solicitations to which Korean male tourists are subjected. Those in their 20s and 30s are enticed by online offers for tour packages involving visits to prostitutes. Those in their 40s and 50s are openly approached by travel agents. Even those Koreans who travel to southeast Asia with no plans to buy sex are frequently lured into sex establishments by enterprising local tour guides.
Yet another factor contributing to the trend may be a severe shortage of women among the younger generation of Koreans due to the nation’s severe gender imbalance. By 2014 one in every five Korean men of marriageable age won’t be able to find a Korean wife of suitable age, according to a 2009 study by the Gyeonggi Province Family and Women’s Research Institute. By then the number of young men between the ages of 29 and 33 will outnumber women in the 26 to 30 age range by 381,300. The situation is blamed on a high degree of gender selection for third and fourth children, as well as a growing number of women who choose to remain single.