Study Reveals Korean Sex Trade Victims

Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) released a report on Korean females tied to overseas sex trade operations on its website yesterday.

According to the report, Australia’s Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) prosecuted 239 Korean prostitutes from July 2002 to June 2005.

Last June, a joint investigation team including U.S. federal prosecutors arrested 47 members of Korean sex trade rings and some 150 Korean sex trade workers in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

According to the NIS, a woman went to Australia because she had been deceived by a sex trade broker who said, “You can earn 70 million won a year.” But all she earned from sleeping with four to five clients a day was 200,000 won a month.

The brokers reportedly paid more than 10 million won in advance to hopeful sex trade workers, and then squeezed an annual interest rate of 60 percent from them.

Another Korean woman, who was prosecuted for involvement in the sex trade in Canada, revealed her contract with an owner (commonly called a “slavery document”). The contract stipulates that absence without leave leads to four million won in fines, and that any disobedience or tardiness without reason is subject to 500,000 won and 50,000 won fines, respectively.

“The overseas sex trade does not mean a free life abroad with a high income. It is a journey toward self-destruction. For the country as a whole, the overseas sex trade might also have a negative impact on the promotion of the Korean Wave and Korea’s visa exemption negotiations with the U.S., and leave an indelible scar of being a “sex trade exporter” on our national image,” said an NIS official.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com