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joojoo · Novice Joined: 23 Dec 2006 Posts: 30 Location:

By Kim Cheong-won

He is a 32-year-old single office worker in Seoul who used to visit red-light districts in Miari and Chongnyangni in Seoul.

But since the government declared war on prostitution last September, he no longer goes out; he goes on-line.

He registered with an adult Internet chatting site after paying an annual membership fee 30,000 won and sends messages to women randomly.

"If one of them wants to earn money by having sex with me, they reply to me. Then I give my phone number to her so that we can arrange the meeting place,'' Kim said.

He declined to identify himself. Instead, he uses the alias Kim Sang-jin.

"It is easy and convenient. I don't have to visit brothels to have sex,'' he added.

Brothel owners and sex workers have taken advantage of more sophisticated methods, including the Internet, to avoid the harsh crackdown on the sex trade since the government enforced a special law to prevent prostitution in September last year.

On Sunday, police arrested a 37-year-old man identified as Lee for having arranged sexual encounters over the Internet and charged five of Lee's female employees and 110 men without detention.

Lee and others are suspected of having arranged sex about 300 times through the Internet in return for around 15 million won since July.

According to police, around 300 men were registered as "customers'' on the messenger and most of them live in Kangnam, a well-to-do area in Seoul, while working as doctors, lawyers and other high-profile office workers.

"Since the implementation of the anti-prostitution law, prostitutes have decreased greatly in number. But some statistics show that the sex industry continues to flourish in other forms at other places,'' said Cho Young-sook, director of the Korea Women's Associations United (KWAU).

"Some people point out the so called "balloon effect,'' if you push one side, the other expands. Although the number of prostitutes has decreased since last September, there has been a sharp increase in quasi-prostitution at karaoke rooms, massage parlors and even skincare shops,'' she said, adding that more systematic and long-term approaches are needed.

The crackdown has triggered strong protests from those involved in the sex industry with mounting calls for measures to protect their livelihood.

Pressed by the action against the sex trade, an increasing number of Korean women are even being lured into human trafficking rings and forced into prostitution abroad.

At the end of June, about 50 people were arrested by US authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles on suspicion of smuggling Korean women into the country and forcing them to work as prostitutes at massage parlors and other businesses.

"With the domestic crackdown on prostitution strengthening, it seems an increasing number of people are attempting to take their business overseas," said Sgt. Yang Sang-mo at the National Police Agency's women and juvenile affairs division.

Police believe the number of Korean women working abroad as prostitutes is on the rise, with cases reported not only in developed countries such as the US and Japan, but also more recently in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and even Mongolia.

Cho Jin-kyoung, head of the Support Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking, said that the move to eradicate sex trading should seek more diverse measures.

"The government should come up with diverse measures, including systematic rehabilitation programs for sex workers and support for brothel owners seeking a new means of making a living, unless it wants to see the sex industry prosper underground,'' she said.