Prostitution Answers Sexual Desires of Senior Citizens

Senior citizens play “janggi” or Korean traditional chess in Jongmyo Park, downtown Seoul. Some of the elderly gathering in park are often approached by prostitutes there. / Korea Times Photo by Park Si-soo

By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

In late morning on Monday, Seoul was still a bit chilly for senior citizens to do outdoor activities due to overnight drizzle. But Jongmyo Park in Jongno in downtown Seoul, a popular gathering spot among elderly retirees, was already crowded with hundreds of regulars.

The male-dominant flock spent most of their time playing poker or Korean-style chess called ``janggi.'' Some others were in a group talking about the latest thought-provoking issues, which got bigger as time went on.

Some foreign travelers on their way from Jongmyo Shrine, the nation's oldest royal Confucian shrine that locates just next to the park, took photos of themselves with the strange crowd as background.

Around 1 p.m., several neatly dressed females seemingly in their 40s or 50s emerged around the park. However, they didn't join in the activities, instead, they kept staring at the crowd as if waiting for their husbands.

``They are prostitutes,'' said a cobbler working in front of the park. ``The number reaches its highest around 3 p.m. Among them are ethnic Koreans from China.'' Noting that at least 25,000-30,000 won ($16.5-20) is needed for a one-time session, he said, ``In many cases, men ask for sex first, but the opposite also occurs.''

The park has been considered a ``sound'' playground for retired senior citizens, but it has recently become a hotbed of the illicit sex trade between sex-hungry old men and prostitutes.

``Where there is a demand, there is a supply,'' the cobbler said. A public restroom in the park was already bombarded with fliers promoting sex-related medicine. ``Cure-all for those suffering declining energy!'' a flier read.

Illegal drug sellers frequent the path encircling the park. A seller attracted customers, displaying the prescription-required erectile dysfunction medicine Viagra. A pharmacist who runs a business nearby said, ``It's fake. It can bring about many side effects such as high blood pressure. In the worst case, it can threaten a consumer's life.''

Among the traders were those selling dried parts of reptiles including snake. ``I caught and dried these on my own. It's really helpful in boosting metabolism,'' one seller said, but refused to say what kinds of side effects it might cause.

This is not an isolated scene witnessed around the Seoul park. According to media reports, major parks in Kwangju, Busan and other major cities are experiencing a similar transition.

Uncontrolled prostitution harms senior citizens

In 2007, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a nationwide health check to know how many aged people had been infected with sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis. The result included hundreds of people frequenting Jongmyo Park. Following the report, Jongno ward office, which administers it, conducted a survey of 153 park users last September.

The survey showed how many aged people there were consistently exposed to unsafe sex and were ignorant of sex-related diseases and proper countermeasures.

To the question over whom they had sex with, 25.2 percent of the respondents or 29 responded: ``Prostitutes around the park.'' Only three people responded they had sex with their wife on a regular basis.

Of the respondents, 3.2 percent or five people said they use a contraceptive such as a condom when having sex, while more than 30 percent of the participants said they have never used such protection from disease.

As a countermeasure, Jongno-gu Public Health Center has been running a campaign that gives lesson about ``safe sex'' to those in the park since last October. Estimating the number of prostitutes in the area at around 50-100, it has doled out packs of contraceptives including condoms to them.

Meanwhile, merchants and citizens in the area criticize the authorities' tolerant attitude to prostitutes and sex buyers for ``booming'' sex trade there.

They claim police officers overseeing the area just stop prostitutes from entering the park, and do not actively crack down on them in the form of imposing a harsh fine or other administrative measures.

``Basically, those who sell or buy sex are subject to detention. But most of them are detained and then released, except for frequent violators, since they usually are senile and poor,'' a police officer at Hyehwa Police Station said. ``Frequent violators are also given moderate punishment such as a small fine.''

Jongno ward office also has no concrete countermeasures. ``We plan to make the environment clean by pushing ahead with various administrative measures. But we have no right to force them out of the area,'' an official said.

Experts said the social atmosphere of viewing senior citizen's sexual desire as a nasty matter has worsened the situation.

``Sexual desire is a desire not only shared among young people but also old people. But our society is sill stuck in the obsolete Confucian-based perception that labels desire as an undesirable state, playing a major hurdle in setting a sound sexual culture for the aged,'' said Prof. Lim Choon-sik at Hannam University's social welfare department.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr