[Korea Encounters] Itaewon once again at center of virus fears

The hill of Itaewon, seen in 1978 / Courtesy of Charles Woodruff/Yongsan Legacy

By Matt VanVolkenburg

South Korea has received international praise for its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, but just as the number of daily new cases dropped into the single digits, a new cluster appeared, centered on clubs in Itaewon.

Engaging in decadence and "overconsumption" was criticized in the past as a threat to economic development, and in the 1970s nightclubs were targeted in "social purification" campaigns, so it is no surprise that clubbing at a time when the nation is battling COVID-19 would not go over well.

That the clubs were in Itaewon made the response even more severe. Sitting next to Yongsan Garrison, which has housed Japanese and U.S. troops over the past 110 years, Itaewon has long been seen as a foreign neighborhood and perceived as an "ethnic exhibition within Korea" (as a 1984 Kyunghyang Shinmun article put it). A place with a "dark nature," it is also associated with prostitution, with "pathetic" women who "chase after" foreign men, and with homosexuality.

It was the latter association that brought out a particularly negative response by some media outlets and netizens when it was discovered that some of the clubs visited by this cluster's "patient zero" catered to the LGBT community. It soon became apparent that Korea's vaunted contact-tracing regime threatened to out hundreds of people, bringing to the fore concerns about its invasion of privacy. It also became clear that homophobia and fear of exposure could hinder the government's attempts to control the outbreak, so in response the government announced a policy of anonymous testing.

Yongsan's first venereal disease clinic, seen in 1969 / Courtesy of Rich Kent/Yongsan Legacy

As clubs were ordered closed and visitors to Itaewon declined, it became reminiscent of an earlier time when Itaewon, the LGBT community and a disease were linked in Koreans' imaginations. On March 12, 1987, after the first Korean citizen died of AIDS, The Korea Times reported that "'gay' bars and facilities exclusively for foreign clientele are on the edge of closing down" because Koreans believe "the fatal disease may be transmitted by foreigners."

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Later, in 2006, the fact that a free HIV-testing clinic for foreigners was located in Itaewon prompted an anti-foreign teacher group to link AIDS to foreign English teachers. After the group's leader was invited to an immigration policy meeting in 2007, HIV testing became mandatory for E-2 visa holders ― a policy only lifted in 2017.

Amid the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Itaewon, foreign teachers again faced scrutiny, since many had visited the area during the period of the outbreak. Though few had been to the affected clubs, all teachers who had visited the area to eat or shop were urged to get tested and self-isolate.

Interestingly, when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) released statistics on its faculty who visited Itaewon, it turned out twice as many Korean faculty (105) had visited as compared to foreign teachers (53); only 14 SMOE faculty had visited the clubs, and none tested positive.

The response of some media outlets to this was not helpful. Either unable to read or in search of a sensational headline, some reported that all 158 of the SMOE faculty who visited Itaewon had gone to clubs. Despite the preponderance of Korean faculty visiting Itaewon, MBC broadcast a news report sporting the headline "More than 90 native speaking English teachers went to Itaewon … There is a nationwide emergency in schools."

Though no foreign teachers were confirmed to have caught the virus, Yonhap ― a wire service funded by the Korean government ― issued a report with the headline "Parents are anxious over 'native speaking instructors' due to spread of COVID-19 in Itaewon." With the repeated use of words like "anxious" and "mistrust," the article argued that even if teachers did not go to Itaewon, they may have come into contact with infected people who visited clubs within the foreign community ― a line of argument that seemed to justify suspicion of all native-speaking instructors simply because they are foreign.

One dessert cafe in Mok-dong took such suspicion a step further by putting up a sign that read, "Sorry! Foreigners are not allowed to enter," but after receiving criticism took it down and apologized.

That a government-funded news outlet would encourage fear and suspicion of foreigners might seem surprising, but considering the Korean government's latest COVID-19 policy aimed at its foreign residents, perhaps it is not. From June 1, almost all foreigners on long-term visas in Korea who travel outside of the country must present a medical report affirming their lack of COVID-19 symptoms upon their return or risk having their visa canceled ― including those on resident visas with family here. A notable exception to this rule are those on F-4 visas. This policy seems a disproportionate response to the fact that long-term visa holders have made up only 6 percent of imported cases.

Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr.

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