“Red List” of Daejeon’s Red-light District “Could it Be Me?”

“Resembles a national soccer player, single, given a beer discount service, mobile phone number ○○○-○○○-○○○○….”

These are the details included in a customer account book acquired by the police from a bar in Daejeon on September 27, which was during the Chuseok holidays.

Detailed information on the physical features and mobile phone numbers of the 108 regular customers and the discount services given to them were included in this account book.

Police also acquired accounts of card payments made by these “customers.” Details on 106 payments made by corporate and private credit cards and the names of 329 customers who used credit cards in this bar from September 1 until recently were listed here.

Police requested a search warrant on the details of card payments in order to confirm the identity of around 430 people suspected of buying sex, and are also planning to expose the details of mobile phone use.

Especially since this bar is known to have many customers not only in Daejeon but from all around the country, a mass of male sex customers are expected to be faced with a criminal charge depending on the results of the investigation.

Police raided this bar located in Yucheon-dong, Jung-gu, Daejeons’s main red-light district, after receiving a call early that day from a woman claiming she was “forced into prostitution.”

Police caught 11 people, including bar owner Park (28) and sex customer Hong (26, graduate student) on the scene, and found the customer account book hidden by Park at a nearby convenience store.

Police requested the arrest of Park and four other people on suspicion of violating a special law aimed at punishing the act of arranging sex services and booked without detention the seven sex purchasers.

According to investigation the woman who made the report had been forced to do prostitution for four years and seven months since she ran away from home at the age of 18, because she was unable to repay the 50 million won given to her as an advance payment.

A member of the police department said, “Formerly it was a habitual practice to center the investigation on men who were caught on the scene, but since this is the point of strengthening the regulation of prostitution, we are planning to investigate thoroughly all acts of prostitution related to sex purchasers whose term of validity for prosecution (three years) have not expired, and criminally punish them.”

However, certain sources pointed out, “Investigating even the past crimes after the enforcement of the Special Law on Prostitution is really retroactive and seems to be an act of ‘enhancing one’s own performance records.’”

needjung@donga.com