By Chung Hyun-chae
Police have rounded up a gang thought to have been offering sex with Korean women to Chinese men in Macau.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Sunday that they arrested a man, surnamed Yu, 30, on suspicion of sex trafficking.
This incident marks the first time Korean nationals have been arrested for sex trafficking in Macau, although prostitution in the U.S., Australia and Japan by Koreans is common.
Two brokers were also booked for linking Yu with the women. Ten prostitutes, including a 28-year-old women surnamed Moon, were also charged.
According to police, Yu operated a prostitution service for Chinese men staying at exclusive hotels or casinos in Macau over the past eight months from April 2014. He hired local touts who approached Chinese men by showing them photos of the Korean prostitutes.
The two brokers recruited Korean prostitutes by posting ads on an online job site in Korea last year and brought them to Macau while disguising their identities as tourists. The women, in their 20s or 30s, had previously worked at bars in Gangnam, southern Seoul.
"They committed the crime exploiting a legal loophole, as they did not need visas to stay in Macau," a police official said in a media briefing.
"They seem to have taken advantage of favorable images of Korean women in Macau and the influence of hallyu. They stayed there for 10 to 30 days, staying at a luxury apartment which Yu leased."
The gang could make a sizable sum of money in a relatively short time. Clients paid from 850,000 won ($788) to 2.140 million won for sex.
Police suspect that dozens more women have solicited sex in Macau besides those caught. The authorities put two more brokers on their wanted list and are expanding their probe in an attempt to identify more prostitution rings.
March. 19. 2023