Sex industry still thrives in underground brothels
An undercover police officer, in the left photo, struggles to open a locked door with a crowbar at a massage parlor in Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul, Nov. 18, as part of a crackdown on the sex industry. A prostitute and her client, in the right-hand photo, try to cover their bodies as police break into the room at the parlor that serves as a brothel. / Courtesy of Gangnam Police Station
By Kim Hyo-jin
An officer looks for evidence in a room inside the parlor. / Korea Times photo by Kim Hyo-jin
“Put your clothes on,” shouted a police officer as he entered a small room during an evening raid on a massage parlor set up as a front to conceal a brothel in Gangnam, southern Seoul.
A man and a woman lying down on a single bed tried hastily to cover their naked bodies with a large bath towel.
The man turned his face away from the officer, while the woman bowed her head.
Four other officers entered another seven rooms connected by a network of underground corridors.
Five government human rights officers and a reporter from The Korea Times accompanied the raid conducted by officers from Gangnam Police Station on Nov. 18.
“You have the right to remain silent,” the officer began reading the couple their rights.
The brothel was located in a nondescript, three-story building located in Nonhyeon-dong.
A hallway and a room in a massage parlor in Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul
A neon sign was on one corner of the building but it did not specify any of the services available or the activities conducted inside. Outside a man was standing guard with a walkie-talkie in his hand.
When the policemen told him to move aside, he offered little resistance.
A door was then flung open and the policemen ran downstairs.
They reached a lounge where a hidden corridor was discovered after an air conditioner was removed.
The operation was made possible by two undercover officers inside the building who posed as customers and text-messaged reports to colleagues waiting outside.
Although the remaining seven rooms were also occupied, officers struggled to break the locks on the doors. By the time they gained entry, men and women inside the rooms were fully clothed and officers were unable to find physical evidence such as used condoms in the room and had to let them go.
“We just had a chat,” said one man, who was accompanied by a woman.
“I was unlucky,” said the man who was caught in bed with a woman, as he was escorted into an unmarked police van.
Also taken into custody was a blind man who managed the premises, but officers said he was just a front man and not the real owner.
Multiple surveillance cameras keep the entire premises under close watch. / Courtesy of Gangnam Police Station
Ten years after the enactment of an anti-prostitution law, the number of red-light districts across the nation dropped to 44 last year from 69 in 2002, according to the National Police Agency.
However, the number of hidden prostitution businesses, busted by the authorities, doubled from 2,068 in 2010 to 4,706 in 2013.
These figures don’t necessarily mean the sex industry is being restricted. Rather, police say it is diversifying and increasingly going underground, making it harder to conduct investigations and prosecute individuals.
“They spring up everywhere, even on wide-open streets, or on the corner of residential areas,” said Shim Jae-wook, 34, the leader of the raid team at Gangnam Police Station.
The brothel raided was less than 200 meters away from a primary school and located next to the entrance of a subway station.
Also multiplying are places where other sexual services are on offer.
They are known by a variety of names such as “Kissing Rooms,” “Hugging Rooms,” “Hanple (hand-play) Rooms,” and even “Ear-Cleaning Rooms.”
During another raid on a massage parlor, police found a quantity of used condoms hidden in a portable gas oven under a sofa, but they were unable to apprehend the owner. Police say that unless someone who has paid for a sex act is caught red-handed additional to physical evidence, there are usually no indictments.
“It’s a shame we didn’t come earlier,” said one squad member. There were no customers, but one man was seen slipping away the second the police broke down the door.
Moreover, the police are overstretched.
In Gangnam police station, there is only a team of five officers to conduct investigations and raids in an area where it is estimated that there are at least 100 hidden brothels.
“We monitor and intervene on five to six businesses a day until two or three in the morning,” said Shim, who has led the squad for two years.
He said that the names and faces of his team members have already become known to brothel owners due to the frequent raids conducted.
A few hours after last month’s raid, the two apprehended were released on suspension of indictment.
“Harsher punishments could raise awareness among the public,” said Kang Yong-taek, a member of the team.
Last year, authorities started enforcing the anti-prostitution law more strictly, sentencing brothel owners to prison terms. Previously brothel owners were usually punished with fines amounting to between 7 and 20 million won.
However, the penalties for sex workers and customers are still too light to have any effect on the industry.
“Now is the time to control demand,” Hwang Eun-young, a prosecutor at Seoul District Public Prosecutors’ office said, adding that a sixteen hour educational program that clients currently have to go through should be revised for there be any real effect.