Shinjang Mall Bars (2005) (Pyeongtaek Times)

January 2006

(SITE NOTE: We have NOT seen the new Article 134 change in print, but most certainly in the coming months it will appear in the press. Previously the UCMJ covered prostitution (by a military member); pandering (as a pimp by a military member); and the adultery provisions. However, solicitation as a "John" was not covered. This is why the USFK used the Article 92 (Failure to Obey a Legal Order) and adultery (if applicable) along with non-judicial punishment as the catch-all.

Initial JSC Draft (2/28/05)

Modifications to Part IV, MCM, "Punitive Articles"
62. Article 134—(Sex-related offenses)
a. Text. See paragraph 60.

b. Elements.

(1) Adultery.
• (a) That the accused wrongfully had sexual intercourse with a certain person;
• (b) That, at the time of the sexual intercourse, the accused or the other person was married to someone else; and
• (c) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces
(2) Sodomy, sexual act or sexual contact.
• (a) That the accused engaged in unnatural carnal copulation, a sexual act or sexual contact with a certain person; and
• (b) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
(3) Prostitution.
• (a) That the accused wrongfully engaged in sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact with another person;
• (b) That the accused did so for the purpose of receiving money or other compensation; and
• (c) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
(4) Patronizing a prostitute.
• (a) That the accused engaged in sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact with another person not the accused's spouse;
• (b) That the accused induced, enticed, or procured such person to engage in sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact in exchange for money or other compensation;
• (c) That this act was wrongful; and
• (d) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
(5) Pandering by compelling, inducing, enticing, procuring, arranging, or receiving consideration for arranging a sexual act, sexual contact or lewd act.
• (a) That the accused compelled, induced, enticed, procured, arranged, or received consideration for arranging with another person to engage in sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact for hire and reward; and
• (b) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
(6) Public offenses. Engaging in sexual intercourse, sodomy, sexual act or sexual contact with another person knowing that a third person is present in the same room or in a public place.
• (a) That the accused wrongfully engaged in sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact with a certain person;
• (b) That, at the time of the sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact, the accused knew a third person was present in the same room; or
• (b) That, at the time of the sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact, the accused was in a public place; and
• (c) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.

c. Explanation.

• (1) Nature of the offenses. These offenses are clearly unacceptable conduct, and reflect adversely on the military as prejudicial to good order and discipline or service discrediting. "Sex-related offenses" may encompass those acts historically recognized as
  • (a) "Indecent Acts"
  • (b) "Adultery"—the act of a married individual having sexual intercourse with someone other than his spouse or the act of an unmarried individual having sexual intercourse with a married individual;
  • (c) "Consensual" sodomy—consensual unnatural carnal copulation between individuals; and
  • (d) "Bestiality"—unnatural carnal copulation with an animal; and if such acts are prejudicial to good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
• (2) Conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces. To constitute an offense under the UCMJ, these offenses must either be directly prejudicial to good order and discipline or service discrediting. Conduct that is directly prejudicial includes conduct that has an obvious, and measurably divisive effect on unit or organization discipline, morale, or cohesion, or is clearly detrimental to the authority or stature of or respect toward a service member. These offenses may also be service discrediting, even though the conduct is only indirectly or remotely prejudicial to good order and discipline. Discredit means to injure the reputation of the armed forces and includes conduct that has a tendency, because of its open or notorious nature, to bring the service into disrepute, make it subject to public ridicule, or lower it in public esteem. While conduct that is private and discreet in nature, may not be service discrediting by this standard, under the circumstances, it may be determined to be conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. Commanders should consider all relevant circumstances, including but not limited to the following factors, when determining whether conduct is prejudicial to good order and discipline or is of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces:
  • (a) The accused's marital status, military rank, grade, or position;
  • (b) The co-actor's marital status, military rank, grade, or position, or relationship to the armed forces;
  • (c) The military status of the accused's spouse or the co-actor's spouse, or their relationship to the armed forces;
  • (d) The impact, if any, of the consensual sexual act on the ability of the accused, the co-actor, or the spouse of either to perform their duties in support of the armed forces;
  • (e) The misuse, if any, of government time and resources to facilitate the commission of the consensual sexual act;
  • (f) Whether the conduct persisted despite counseling or orders to desist; the flagrancy of the conduct, such as whether any notoriety ensued; whether the conduct was accompanied by other violations of the UCMJ;
  • (g) The negative impact of the conduct on the units or organizations of the accused, the co-actor or the spouse of either of them, such as a detrimental effect on unit or organization morale, teamwork, and efficiency;
  • (h) Whether the accused or co-actor was legally separated;
  • (i) Whether the misconduct involves an ongoing or recent relationship or is remote in time;
  • (j) The location where the conduct occurred (e.g., on board a military vessel, aircraft, or installation);
  • (k) Whether the conduct occurred in public;
  • (l) Whether the conduct occurred in the presence of a third-party; and
  • (m) The nature, if any, of the official and personal relationship between the accused and co-actor. In a prosecution under paragraph 62, it is an affirmative defense that the accused and the other person engaged in the sexual act or sexual contact are married to each other. A marriage exists until it is dissolved in accordance with the laws of a competent state or foreign jurisdiction. The accused has the burden of proving an affirmative defense under paragraph 62 by a preponderance of the evidence.
• (3) Definitions. For purposes of this paragraph the following definitions apply:
  • (a) Sexual act. Sexual act means the penetration, however slight, of the anal or genital opening of another by a hand or finger or by any object, with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.
  • (b) Sexual contact. Sexual contact means the intentional touching, either directly or through the clothing of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with the intent to abuse, humiliate, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person; or intentionally causing or allowing another person to touch, either directly or through the clothing, the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person, with an intent to abuse, humiliate, degrade, arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.
  • (c) Sodomy. See paragraph 51 (c)(1) for the definition of unnatural carnal copulation (sodomy).

d. Lesser included offenses.

• (1) Adultery.—Article 80—attempts
• (2) Sodomy, Sexual act and Sexual contact.—Article 80—attempts
• (3) Prostitution.—Article 80—attempts
• (4) Patronizing a prostitute.—Article 80—attempts
• (5) Pandering by compelling, inducing, enticing, procuring, arranging, or receiving consideration for arranging sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act, or sexual contact.—Article 80—attempts
• (6) Engaging in a sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or, sexual contact with another person knowing that a third person is present in the same room or in a public place.—Article 80—attempts

e. Maximum punishment.

• (1) Adultery. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for one year.
• (2) Sodomy, Sexual act and sexual contact.
  • (a) When involving a prisoner or detainee. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for five years.
  • (b) In a public place or knowingly in the presence of a third party. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinemnt for three years.
  • (c) All other cases. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for one year.
• (3) Prostitution.
  • (a) Patronizing a prostitute and prostitution. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for one year.
  • (b) Pandering by compelling, inducing, enticing, procuring, arranging, or receiving consideration for arranging sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or sexual contact. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for five years.
  (4) Engaging in sexual intercourse, unnatural carnal copulation, sexual act or, sexual contact with another person knowing that a third person is present in the same room or in a public place. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and confinement for three years.

(SITE NOTE: The way we read the articles is that "to constitute an offense under the UCMJ, these offenses must either be directly prejudicial to good order and discipline or service discrediting. Conduct that is directly prejudicial includes conduct that has an obvious, and measurably divisive effect on unit or organization discipline, morale, or cohesion, or is clearly detrimental to the authority or stature of or respect toward a service member."

Adultery under UCMJ In Jan 2006 Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher VanGoethem serving as Commander of the Bucharest US Embassy guards messed up by attempting to cover up his role in the traffic death of a famous Romanian musician traveling in a taxi. During the course of the investigation it was found that he was having an affair with Ilse Wentworth, a secretary at the Embassy. He was charged with adultery under the UCMJ. The lawyer attempted to have the charge dismissed as it was not "directly prejudicial to good order and discipline" as no one knew of it. The court denied the request, but the jury found the sergeant not guilty of adultery -- after his wife's impassioned plea in his defense. The board found VanGoethem not guilty of negligent homicide and adultery, but guilty of two lesser charges: obstruction of justice and making false statements in trying to cover up the adulterous relationship. Instead of receiving a bad conduct discharge or jail time, he was allowed to complete his contract of service. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

On the other hand, in Feb 2006, Senior Airman Calvin Wheeler Jr. at Osan AB was convicted of rape and adultery after sleeping in a female's coworker's room after a bout of heavy drinking. Though he claimed he did not remember the incident, the female's story prevailed and he was convicted of rape and adultery -- and sentenced to two years and a dishonorable discharge. Wheeler supposedly had non-consensual sex with a female in the dorm after drinking heavily. He was convicted of rape and adultery and sentenced to two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. The adultery charge was added because Wheeler was married. (Source: Stars and Stripes.) (SITE NOTE: Under the new UCMJ we wonder how the adultery was directly prejudicial to good order and discipline or service discrediting. We wonder how the act of adultery had an obvious, and measurably divisive effect on unit or organization discipline, morale, or cohesion, or is clearly detrimental to the authority or stature of or respect toward a service member." We have questions as to how the judgement for adultery was reached.)

Much of the defense effort appeared aimed at undercutting the female airman's credibility. In the trial's first day, she acknowledged she'd claimed to have been raped six times since being in the Air Force but hadn't reported the first five incidents, which she said were at Nellis. The sixth, she said, was the April incident involving Wheeler. Wheeler said he'd been drinking heavily at an off-base club and could recall little of what happened afterward. "He stated that there would be no reason for her to make this up," Mendoza testified. "He did state that it could have happened. … He didn't want to guess." The verdict came down to whether the jury of officers believed the woman's testimony. However, cynics like us wonder why would a woman with a boyfriend allow someone to sleep in the same bed with her while clad in a t-shirt, bra and panties. Second, the enlisted dorms at Osan are close together and she could have dropped him off as they were already in a taxi coming back from town. We wonder if this case will be appealed because it doesn't sound right. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

Article 92 Under the current method, they get to prosecute offenders under the Article 92, failure to obey a general order -- "Don't pay hookers." This has meat...but the new UCMJ change to Article 132 will be sure hard to prove. Patronizing a prostitute, must show that "the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces." We wonder how a private consensual sex act in the privacy of a hotel room can constitute bringing "discredit upon the armed forces." We believe the ACLU would have a field day with this prosecution argument if it should ever end up in a conviction.

In addition, under the current criteria used in Korea, we question if the prosecution could substantiate the solicitation charge using "behavior inconsistent with the core values of the military" in a court of law. What the heck are the "core values"?

UCMJ versus US Laws Now that the UCMJ has changed, we wonder when the attacks on prostitution on the streets of America will take place placing the "Johns" in jail with sentences of up to one year. (SARCASM) Holy shades of "blue laws" in America!!! Interesting proposition. Our problem all along has been that human trafficking is a political problem extending beyond the borders of America -- into the streets of Songtan, Uijongbu, Itaewon and other "camp towns." However, prostitution is a morale problem that the military has contended with since its earliest days -- with many a good chaplain condemning the practice of prostitution outside the gates. The complication is that the USFK -- and now the President -- has confused the political problem (human trafficking) with the morale problem (prostitution).

Core Values We also wonder about the USFK advertising about the act of solicitation being against the "core values" of the Armed Forces. We did not read about "core values" violations being punishable in the UCMJ changes. We also wonder how the defense will prove "conduct that is prejudicial to good order and discipline." The amendments to the UCMJ state: "Conduct that is directly prejudicial includes conduct that has an obvious, and measurably divisive effect on unit or organization discipline, morale, or cohesion, or is clearly detrimental to the authority or stature of or respect toward a service member." It'll be hard to prove that a consensual sex act with a prostitute in a hotel room -- that was most often reported by a snitch -- has a "directly prejudicial" and "measurably divisive effect" on a unit. Unless the individual openly boasts about such liaisons to subordinates and encourages the same behavior, it will be hard to define the "measurably divisive effect" on the unit.

Q: Maureen Walsh, general counsel for the Helsinki Commission, has praised USFK and your actions to try to stem servicemember involvement in prostitution and human trafficking. Why is this issue so important to you and how do you think the military is doing in other parts of the world?

A: I will tell you that at the highest levels of the Defense Department, there's great emphasis on the zero tolerance policy. And that's evidenced by the policies that have been promulgated out of the Defense Department, the recent changes to the (Uniform Code of Military Justice) where it made prostitution a UCMJ violation, specifically. (SITE NOTE: Prostitution and pandering (by military members) has always been punishable under the UCMJ, but what has changed is that solicitation of prostitutes (if DIRECTLY impacting on good order and discipline) is now under the UCMJ. We await the first court martial to see if this new change to the UCMJ is constitutional. However, the only the USFK actively pursued the matter as the USFK was set up by the Helenski Commission as a soft target who couldn't fight back. Notice how Gen LaPorte sidestepped the question of "other parts of the world." The reason is that the rest of the commands simply paid lip service to the issue and did nothing according to the Helenski Commission.)

In terms of USFK, we view prostitution as a form of slavery. And, clearly, human trafficking is slavery. And our nation's experience with slavery teaches us a lot. So this is a very, very important issue for the command, and the command has spent a great deal of time and energy on this, educating our servicemembers on the real nature, the real evil associated with prostitution — that so many of these young women and boys are forced into this type of life. And we know that that is wrong. (SITE NOTE: The general has made a generalization which does NOT apply to all Korean prostitutes. The General equates prostitution to human trafficking and slavery. It may be true of many, but not all. In Korea, there are thousands of women who choose prostitution as a lifestyle by choice -- for whatever their reasons. These women from around the country protested the crackdown on prostitution in Sep 2004. The fact that prostitution exists in the US makes this statement into a condemnation of America as a country practicing "slavery.")

We have put over 600 facilities or establishments off-limits. Why? Because we had clear evidence that they were involved in prostitution. We have a curfew and the curfew, in our mind, is appropriate. All of us in the military are here for a purpose, and that purpose requires us to be vigilant and ready. (SITE NOTE: So a curfew which keeps the bars off-limits after hours is in the national defense???)

The other aspect of this is — it's fostering an attitude relative to women. Women fill all the ranks in our military. And we have to be consistent in our message relative to women, whether they wear a uniform or not. The command is not going to look one way while its male servicemembers go downtown and treat women a certain way, and then expect them to treat the women officers, the women noncommissioned officers and the women servicemembers differently when they come back on post. That doesn't work. So prostitution and human trafficking, in my mind, undermines the chain of command and the role that women play in the U.S. military. And that's not going to be tolerated. (Source: Stars and Stripes.) (SITE NOTE: We wonder if this applies to strip joints as well -- or sitting with "juicies." Are these the next on the list of prohibitions? With the greatest respect for the general, his logic doesn't hold water. In Feb 2006, Gen Bell took over the reins of the USFK and as he was the Commanding General of the European theater prior to this assignment, we wonder if he will continue the low-key approach to the problem that he pursued in Europe. This is highly unlikely as the Congressional trap that snared Gen LaPorte latched onto him the day he assumed command.)

Gen LaPorte and Ambassador Hubbard (27 Nov 2002) (AFP)

Unfortunately, the Korean side of the house has NOT changed. They had a massive sweep in Sep 2004 and then NOTHING. Significantly fewer prostitution-related arrests took place in Korea in the year that followed than in the one-month sweep in Sep-Oct 2003. The only thing that happened is that prostitution moved out of the red-light regulated districts into the neighborhoods and internet. In Korea, it is out of the control of the police -- and now the $2.4 billion sex industry has gone underground.

In Korea, there will be new challenges for the USFK as prostitution has moved to the chat rooms to set up "dates" at hotels. Filipinas are becoming computer-literate and targeting Korea specific chat rooms for GIs. (NOTE: Koreans are not targeting GIs as they are low-end trade -- meaning they do not pay the going rate.) Sting operations coordinated with the Korean National Police (KNP) will be difficult as many of the "love hotels," brothels, double-barber pole massage parlors include cameras of entrances that monitor the approach of a group of police officers -- and some even have hidden rooms.

(SITE NOTE: We seriously question the "sting operations" that have occurred in the Anjeong-ni area that appear to be USFK instigated -- though the Col Taliento as the Area III commander stated they were part of a "joint crime prevention program" with the KNP. There were no arrests of the alleged Korean prostitutes under the existing Korean prostitution law -- but punitive action was taken by Camp Humphreys against the bars for prostitution based on the USFK "evidence." The tacky part of these "sting" operations is that they take place OFF-BASE and it is the purview of the ROK as a SOVEREIGN nation -- not the USFK. The law enforcement authority is the Korean National Police -- not the Area Commander.

In addition, Korean courts recently showed through a sequence of rulings that entrapment, if proven, would invalidate any follow-on criminal indictments and, more importantly, how entrapment defenses will be handled. As generally known, sting operations are often used in criminal investigations to catch suspects who would not otherwise be caught due to the secretive nature of certain crimes, such as espionage, bribery and drug trafficking. But, sting operations don't always result in punishment, especially when suspects can prove entrapment, and the breadth of permissible sting operations varies around the globe. Korea now has a clear judicial precedent to show what impact on criminal justice entrapment defenses may have.

A recent case involved the importation of methamphetamines in which the defendants argued they had been asked by a prosecution informer to purchase the drugs in China and bring them back in order to assist law enforcement efforts. In January 2004 the Seoul High Court, during an appeal, upheld that the defendants were guilty even considering the existence of evidence showing that they were actually contacted by a public prosecutor office's informant, that they were possibly persuaded to believe that their assistance was necessary to make an "operation" successful and that they had no criminal intent. The defendants then appealed to the highest court. The Supreme Court ruled in May 2004 in favor of the defendants, pointing out that entrapment may have been involved in inducing the defendants to commit the crime. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the High Court to review competing versions of the facts, pointing out that the lower court overlooked the weight of some evidence favorable to the defense, such as records allegedly showing the investigating officer's transfer of drug purchasing money through intermediaries to one of the defendants. Having dealt again with the entrapment argument, the High Court found the defendants' version to be more trustworthy, saying that prosecutor's case for the defendants' independent intent to commit the crime was less persuasive. In January 2005 the High Court voided the criminal indictment due to a violation of the criminal procedure law. Although the prosecutor appealed, the ruling was finally approved by the Supreme Court in October 2005. (Source: Korea Herald.)

The bottomline of this legal jargon is that the entrapment defense is now understood as a means by which courts can maintain the legality of criminal investigations and the integrity of the criminal justice system. If the Camp Humphreys' "sting operations" in Korea continue, there are serious legal questions that may arise over the "entrapment" issue as the GIs are offering monetary enticements -- and providing opportunities to commit a crime. It can get sticky in a hurry...

SITE NOTE: Egads, Nevada and all states with legalized prostitution had better beware. (The Chicken Ranch in Nevada is over a hundred years old and all the prostitutes are licensed -- and they even have a website to advertise their "wares.") Now the US government can interfere in "states rights" issues by Executive Order. You get the idea. There are umpteen ways to attack this issue from the individual military member civil rights aspect to the larger "states rights" issues.

Patronizing a prostitute is now a specific crime for servicemembers

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, January 7, 2006

ARLINGTON, Va. -- For the first time, the Department of Defense has specifically made it a crime for a servicemember to patronize a prostitute. The punishment: up to a year in prison, forfeiture of pay and dishonorable discharge.

The formal order came in a presidential executive order signed without fanfare Oct. 14, directing changes in the Manual for Courts-Martial. It is part of an assault the military has been waging against human trafficking.

A Defense Department spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said in an e-mailed response to questions that prostitution and pandering will now be among the offenses covered by Article 134 of the courts-martial manual.

Paying for sex used to fall under the "Solicitation of Another to Commit an Offense" listed as part of Article 134, which executes the corresponding section in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Krenke said.

It prohibits "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces" and "all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."

But the October executive order makes prostitution and pandering specific offenses, she said. Krenke said that the DOD made the change as part of its effort to combat human trafficking by taking on the sex exploitation industry, as set forth in a December 2002 National Security Presidential Directive that says in part:

"Our policy is based on an abolitionist approach to trafficking in persons, and our efforts must involve a comprehensive attack on such trafficking, which is a modern day of slavery. In this regard, the U.S. Government opposes prostitution and any related activities, including pimping, pandering, or maintaining brothels as contributing to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons."

The military needs to change its general mind-set that tolerates prostitution, said Sara Mendelson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Mendelson, author of a report on human trafficking and peacekeeping in the Balkans, said the military needs to get the word out about the change on prostitution to make it effective.

"The issues is not whether activists or experts in Washington, D.C., know about it, it's whether the soldier in the field understands; it? whether the commander in the field understands that this is a change from the previous regulation in the Manual for Courts-Martial," she said.

As early as November 2004, the services began to write online training courses that cover prostitution within the framework of human trafficking, Krenke said.

Krenke said it teaches that "you don't have to be a professional criminal to contribute to the trafficking industry. You aid and encourage trafficking in persons without engaging in it directly, by hiring a prostitute."

While the change to the courts-martial manual makes it clearer that prostitution is illegal, Marine commanders from the top down already know that prostitution is a punishable offense and have taken steps to combat it, wrote Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Douglas Powell via e-mail.

"Marines are briefed by their commanders, especially those who are deploying overseas, that they should not engage in prostitution," Powell said.

EPILOGUE: Stars and Stripes on 22 Oct 2006 reported that "Only one person in Europe has been punished for hiring a prostitute since a change was instituted a year ago that made the practice a specific offense for all Department of Defense personnel. The offender was an Air Force staff sergeant assigned to the 725th Air Mobility Squadron at Morón Air Base, Spain. The airman received an Article 15 on April 12 for signing a false official statement and procuring a prostitute, according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe public affairs." However, we wonder if it was so much the change in personnel ideas on prostitution -- or the weakness of the UCMJ articles. Notice that the punishment was only an Article 15 and NOT a court martial under the new articles.

The article went on to state, "The section of the code dealing with patronizing a prostitute says the accused must have had sexual intercourse with someone other than the accused’s spouse, that it was wrongful and was of a nature to bring discredit on the armed forces." If one reads the UCMJ article it states that the act must "(2) Conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces. To constitute an offense under the UCMJ, these offenses must either be directly prejudicial to good order and discipline or service discrediting. Conduct that is directly prejudicial includes conduct that has an obvious, and measurably divisive effect on unit or organization discipline, morale, or cohesion, or is clearly detrimental to the authority or stature of or respect toward a service member. These offenses may also be service discrediting, even though the conduct is only indirectly or remotely prejudicial to good order and discipline. Discredit means to injure the reputation of the armed forces and includes conduct that has a tendency, because of its open or notorious nature, to bring the service into disrepute, make it subject to public ridicule, or lower it in public esteem. While conduct that is private and discreet in nature, may not be service discrediting by this standard, under the circumstances, it may be determined to be conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline." We're still awaiting a test case for a court martial conviction under Article 164.

---

Comparison of Kunsan and Shinjang Mall Town Patrol The point is the Security Forces Town Patrols of Kunsan and Osan AB police know full-well that the areas of Kunsan City and Songtan are the SOVEREIGN TERRITORY of the Republic of Korea. However, by the same token, the Kunsan Town Patrol and Osan AB Town Patrol considers A-town and the Shinjang Mall respectively as "their" turf. It is a mistaken impression that they "own" the area.

The truth is that the Korean National Police (KNP) in Songtan would rather let the American Town Patrol handle the area as the clientele is almost entirely military. The KNP only gets called in when foreign visitors or foreign bar girls get into a hassle. The bars are "tourist bars" and open to all tourists -- as seen by the frequent internet postings by foreign visitors of the Shinjang Mall night life.

We have made the same comments of Col Taliento's campaign in Area III (Camp Humphreys) to hold "sting operations" by USFK personnel at bars off-base in the guise of "joint anti-crime campaigns." Without the DIRECT involvement of the KNP, these operations infringe on the jurisdiction of the local authorities. Any punishments meted out to local establishments (off-limits actions) WITHOUT direct supporting arrests by local KNP of existing pandering and prostitution laws are in our opinion grounds for legal action. (SITE NOTE: However, we know that the bars will NOT take legal action against the base as they rely on Camp Humphrey personnel business for survival. They would rather hassle the differences out by compromise. However, the anti-Col Taliento protest rallies in Anjeong-ni of 2005 after his arbitrary "blanket" off-limits sanctions show that the anger over the situation sits just below the surface. The same can be said about the Shinjang Mall bar owners as well. Local businessmen and shop owners on the mall are supportive of this attitude against the Area III-type initiatives.)

The problem for the Security Forces is that "power corrupts -- and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The temptation for "kickbacks" and abuse of power was illustrated last year with the arrest and conviction of 1st Lt Jason D. Davis of the 51st Security Forces Squadron accused of accepting bribes, shaking down the bars for "favors" and other unsavory conduct. As of mid-2005, the base has backed off on the prosecution of its anti-prostitution campaign -- keeping things low-key. (See American Off-base Bar Culture: Allegations of Town Patrol Shaking Down Songtan Bar Owners (Mar 2005 - Sep 2005))

Demonstrators outside Osan Air Base, South Korea, protest what they say were shakedowns of local Korean bar owners by U.S. Air Force security police responsible for patrolling the off-base bar district. (30 Mar 05) (Franklin Fisher / S&S)

Osan AB, Shinjang and Songtan Development Osan did NOT develop its camptown (ki'chichon) in the same way. The Chicol Village developed just outside the gate along the access road constructed by the Engineering Aviation Battalion in 1952. At first it was a group of cardboard boxes and ammo-crate buildings. Over the flattened ammo-cans, the roofs were simply tar-paper (stolen from the base) tacked down by strips. The businesses of Songtan were first along this strip -- and later expanded as rice fields were reclaimed. (NOTE: What one sees as Songtan now was almost completely ricefields in the 1950s and starting in the 1960s was reclaimed to make way to housing. The development started at the strip and expanded out towards Namsan-tau and towards Sogwang and Milwal-dong. Starting in the mid-1960s, the rice fields were reclaimed in the Songbuk area and extended as far as the Jisan-dong area. It stagnated there until the massive construction projects of the 1990s.)


Opera Club in evening viewed from Rodeo Alley (2005) (Kalani O'Sullivan)

Though Osan did develop a nuclear alert (by TDY units from Japan), it could not implement the three-mile exclusionary zone as 70 percent of the population of Songtan lived within 1km of the Main Gate. Thus the treatment of the area was handled differently. The police box -- and later station -- right across from the Songbuk Farmers' Market was at one end of the "strip" across from the Mokchon train crossing (now closed). In essence, the Security Police and KNP worked together to control the strip. Over the years, the conditions improved, but the bars were still concentrated just outside the base.

However, slowly bars catering to the GIs started to spread to other areas of the town. The bar row was concentrated near the main gate and Korean brothels were up in Jwadong. Soon black bars expanded up into the Jwadong area -- then called Sutgoki -- while the Shinjang area was strictly white only bars. The racial friction came to a head -- as it was doing nationwide with race riots -- and the base shut down the Jwadong area with off-limits sanctions.


(L) Shinjang Mall bar (Circa 2000) (R) Town Patrol in Shinhang Mall area (Circa 2000) (Pyeongtaek Sisa)

Once again, the GI bars were confined to the area of the main gate. Korean nightclubs were built in other areas of the now expanding town and Seojong-ni was incorporated into the Songtan City expansion in 1981. Soon the focus on the area changed and Songtan City was absorbed by Pyeongtaek City in 1991 -- while the area was redesignated as a "Special Tourism Zone." Once again, the GI bars were segregated from the local area -- and the control fell mainly to the SPs with KNP assistance.


Russian Dancer at Road House in Osan (2003) (Unknown)

However, after the Miracle of the Han developed, Osan AB became the magnet for foreign bar girls and a completely new set of problems -- culminating in the deportation of the Russians "juicey girls" in 2004 and takeover by the Filipinas. The Korean bar girls by-and-large have left the Shinjang Mall to pursue the more lucrative trade in the Korean bars. (NOTE: Though the KNP cracked down nationwide on the prostitution trade for ONE MONTH in Sep 2004, nothing has been done since and the $2.4 billion trade is still flourishing.)


Filipinas in Songtan Bar (2004) (Songtan After Dark)

Kunsan AB, A-town and Kunsan CIty DevelopmentThe story is incorrect historically. In the early days, after the Korea War there were only the red-light district near the train station and two GI bars in the Yahwah-dong area. The base did not patrol the areas simply because they were undermanned and truthfully, no one really gave a damn. Kunsan AB was a hell-hole used as a contingency base with a small care-taker force -- who viewed the assignment as a punishment tour. To the commanders, the off-base bar life did pose a problem with control of personnel as much as 50 percent of the base would "disappear" overnight and be uncontactable until the next morning. Then after the Pueblo Crisis, the base changed into one where an active wing was stationed, first with the 3rd TFW and then the 8th TFW. In 1971, A-town was constructed just outside the three-mile limit (because of the nuclear alert prohibitions) and it became a GI-town with the full-acquiescence of the ROK -- designating it a "special tourism zone" or fancy name for "camptown" (ki'chichon).


American Town (1971)

For many years, the downtown areas were not a main concern as few GIs went there and the three GI bars (actually back-room brothels) remained in operation. In the 1980s, the bars in the Yahwah dong upgraded themselves and the area became a shopping district for GIs. At this time, the Security Police (SPs) started to patrol the area -- as well as the red-light district just down the street to keep the GIs in check. Then after the Miracle of the Han started to trickle down, the Koreans started to have spendable incomes and the GI trade became "cheap trade" -- meaning that GIs spent very little money. By the 1990s, most of the bars had changed to Korean bars with only a few bars open to Koreans and GIs such as Cowboys. After brothels burned down in the red-light district in with prostitutes trapped inside (TWICE: 2000 & 2002), the SPs stopped patrolling the area to distance itself from scandals as the KNP and city officials were implicated in knowing of the conditions and doing nothing.

Kunsan Redlight District (2000) (Kunsan and A-Town)


America Town Gate and Arcade (Aug 2004) (Kunsan and A-Town)

Because of the vile anti-Americanism of 2002 the Security Police retrenched itself behind its walls on base and concentrated on A-town -- which then had a separate set of problems with the base dealing with the anti-Prostitution campaign. The bars of Kunsan City were off-limits for a year. The downtown areas remained unpatrolled -- until now. However, according to the article, the rules have changed to be one of assisting GIs OUTSIDE the bars handed to them by the KNP. They are not pro-active, but reactive. (See A-town and Prostitution: for background on A-town and Yahwa-dong area -- and red-light districts of Kunsan.)

Town Patrol near America Town Entrance at Mama's Restaurant (Jan 2006) (AFN-K)

The following article from the Stars and Stripes on 28 Jan is erroneous in some of its facts, but it does stress the problem that the OSAN AB SECURITY FORCES IN THE SHINJANG MALL face. It recognizes that the Kunsan Security Forces are invited to assist the KNP with airmen who are intoxicated or in trouble -- with the emphasis on they were "invited" by the KNP. On the other hand, the way the Kunsan Town Patrol operates in A-town and how the Osan Town Patrol operates on Shinjang Mall are the same. However, both are OFF-BASE.

Air base, local police team for weekend patrols in Kunsan City

By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, January 28, 2006

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — Air Force police from Kunsan Air Base have teamed up with South Korean police to mount weekend patrols in Kunsan City's bar and entertainment district. The patrols, which began earlier this month, pair Korean National Police officers with airmen from the 8th Security Forces Squadron's town patrol. (SITE NOTE: Up to the 1990s, the Town Patrol patrolled the Kunsan areas and red-light districts on foot -- entering the GI bars in the Yahwah dong area to check on GIs, while only ensuring no GIs were on the streets in the red-light areas. They did NOT enter any establishments in the red-light district. The Yahwah dong area is no longer a GI shopping area and all the businesses relocated to A-town -- and many of the former GI bars became strictly Korean clientele in the 2000s.)

The Korean National Police suggested that base officials assign some airmen to accompany KNP officers patrolling a section of Kunsan City whose bars, clubs and restaurants tend to draw U.S. servicemembers.

"You can count on there being quite a few people down there on weekends," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Jennifer Zier, the town patrol's sergeant-in-charge. "People that are over-intoxicated, sick, lost, that's what they'll be looking for and then obviously, any other thing that they think we need to take care of," she said.

The patrol also will watch for servicemembers out past the U.S. Forces Korea curfew, or who violate the rule that airmen not be off base without a companion.

But patrol members also will keep an eye on servicemember safety. If they spot a servicemember who's sick, injured, in danger, or, for example, too drunk to return safely to base, they're ready to step in.

Under U.S. Forces Korea rules, weekend curfew kicks in at 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The town patrol has for decades patrolled a similar off-base entertainment district called A-Town. About three miles from the base and not part of Kunsan City proper, A-Town is a commercial district of shops, bars and restaurants catering mainly to U.S. servicemembers. The town patrol's offices are in A-Town. (SITE NOTE: The A-town is "incorporated" as a business and the facilities are provided at no cost by the town to the Town Patrol. The Town Patrol office used to be across from the Loading Zone in the "old days," but now is located up on the hill above the bar row. Though we no longer live in Kunsan, our bar owner friends have said that the business in A-town is going downhill.)

"The new thing is that now, on weekends, an hour prior to curfew and an hour after curfew, we meet up with Korean National Police and one of our interpreters and actually go into Kunsan City, which we've never been allowed to do before," said Zier.

Kunsan Air Base is home to the 8th Fighter Wing, also known as the Wolf Pack. The interpreter is a Korean employee of the wing.

The KNP patrols in one of its vehicles, the airmen in an Air Force vehicle. Two airmen and the interpreter are assigned to a given patrol; thus far the KNP has assigned a detective in civilian clothes and one uniformed officer.

On joint patrols in Kunsan City, KNP officers take the lead, Zier said. Kunsan forbids its town patrol members from entering bars, clubs or other establishments while on patrol; "currently we don't have jurisdiction to do that." Instead, Zier said, KNP officers enter those establishments and "we remain in our vehicle." (SITE NOTE: This is a change from the "old days" when the Town Patrols entered the bars. After the vile anti-Americanism of 2002, the USFK presence in uniform downtown was eliminated. In many Korean bars in Kunsan, the presence of Americans is still not appreciated.)

"If they found someone … in violation," she said, "they would bring them to us … and we would take it from there."

"Our mission as a joint patrol is to assist all USFK members who need assistance in Kunsan City," Zier said. "More of a community policing. … Make sure" servicemembers are "conducting themselves appropriately. … It's for their own safety. We're there to keep an eye on them and to keep them safe."

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March 2006

Lt. Gen. Trexler Lets Lt. Davis Sentence Stand (Mar 2006) On 12 Mar it was reported that Lt. Gen Gary Trexler decided to let stand the sentence of 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis, who is serving time in prison for abusing his position as head of an Air Force police team that patrolled the bar district outside Osan Air Base. Davis was sentenced in Sep 2005 to two years in prison and dismissal from the Air Force.

But under standard military legal procedure, it remained for Lt. Gen. Garry R. Trexler, convening authority in Davis' general court-martial, to decide whether to amend the sentence or let it stand. Trexler left the ruling undisturbed. This was the final post-trial action. Davis has asked for an appelate lawyer to review his case to see if further legal actions are warranted.

Davis pleaded guilty to running illicit police undercover operations, accepting gifts and cash from club owners, maintaining illicit sexual liaisons with bar girls, breaking the U.S. military's curfew that the town patrol had the duty of enforcing, being drunk and disorderly, having sex with women who were not his wife, illegally possessing weapons, illegally keeping an off-base apartment, using racial and ethnic slurs, filing a leave request with false information as to his intended destination and maintaining an improper relationship with a subordinate airman.

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Overseas Korean Hookers a Problem: NIS (Mar 2006) For years we have been saying that Gen LaPorte was fighting a futile battle over prostitution in a country that is both a purveyor in human trafficking (Philippines and Russian girls) as well as supplier in human trafficking (Japan, Australia, Canada and US).

Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) released a report on Korean females tied to overseas sex trade operations on its website on 19 Mar 2006. "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. (NOTE: Actually the complaints of Koreans operating massage parlors as places of prostitution in New York, the Midwest, Los Angeles and anywhere there is a sizeable Korean population has been heard for decades. The difference is that prior to 1990, it used to be mainly ex-wives of soldiers entered the US and then got divorced. However, now it is Koreans who are entering the country specifically for prostitution.)

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

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. In the past, the most popular entrance point was from Canada (mostly British Colombia) along the porous border into the sparcely populated states of Idaho, Montana, Colorado and then onto to the Midwest or New York where the clamp-down on "massage parlors" are almost non-existent. The following is an article from the Chosun Ilbo on 3 July 2005:

U.S. Busts Tell Sorry Tale of Korean Prostitutes Abroad

The number of Korean women looking for work as prostitutes abroad or being trafficked for the purpose is on the increase. Some 50 members of two gangs busted in California on Friday on charges of selling hundreds of Korean women to places of prostitution are just the tip of the iceberg.

Destinations for Korean sex workers are no longer limited to developed nations like the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan. Korean police say the number of women working in bars, karaoke clubs and massage parlors in countries frequented by growing numbers of Korean tourists like Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is increasing. Meanwhile in North America the realm of activity of Korean sex workers is spreading from major urban centers like Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto to smaller cities and towns.

In February (2005), it emerged that an organization sold 38 women to brothels in Australia, New Zealand and Canada in conditions of virtual bonded labor. Police say the organization would advance the women millions of won they had to pay back at 60 percent interest and forced them to pay medical expenses for diseases contracted on the job. The women had to sign up to a "code of conduct" that fined them US$300 for arguing with customers and US$50 for showing up a minute late to work.

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.

In a country with a 2.4 billion dollar sex trade, the USFK fight to combat prostitution has been one of total frustration. Gen LaPorte had just reported for duty in Korea when he was trapped by the anti-Americanism in Jun 2002 and then the US Congress Helsinki Committee decided to jump in and trap the USFK in a scandal that they had no part in in Jul 2002. The USFK was being attacked on all sides and the Gen was trapped into combining a political issue (human trafficking) and a moral issue (prostitution). But then many started to question the USFK approach to stopping prostitution. The "camp towns" (Ki'chichon) had spread from the first camptown at Ascom City (now Pupyong in Seoul) in 1945. (See American Off-base Bar Culture: Opinion on Human Trafficking Campaign for background.)

Also the US State Department released an annual human rights analysis in March 2006 that was not flattering to the ROK in that trafficking of women was a problem. "The law prohibits trafficking in persons; nevertheless, the country was a country of origin, transit and destination," it stated, with women trafficked primarily for sexual exploitation to the United States, Japan and other nations. (See US State Department report cites South & North Korean Human Rights Concerns.)

Supposedly the ROK has gotten tough on human trafficking, but the Korean NGO human rights groups all agree that the ROK only performed an "eyewash" crackdown in Sept 2004 -- and has done nothing since. Under the new ROK law a mandatory three-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of engaging in human trafficking for the sex trade. Members of organized crime would get a minimum of five years. Another new law offers rewards of 20 million won (around $17,000) for information leading to the conviction of human traffickers. Another provision lets the government confiscate all proceeds and property earned through the illegal sex trade. However, despite the fact that Korean organized crime elements were involved, we still have not heard of anyone being deported to Korea from the US for punishment. (NOTE: If deported the home country foots the bill for airfare so it is not a case of the ROK not being aware of their presence.) Is it because it would be too much of an embarassment for Korea -- or is it because the US thinks its just too much paperwork as these members of Korean organized crime elements.)

An additional new wrinkle in the law differentiates legally between women involuntarily in the sex trade (who would be classified as victims) and those who are determined to voluntarily sell sex (who would be punished as criminals). These women who were "duped" according to the NIS still fall under the category as "criminals" as they knew before they departed Korea that they were going to be prostitutes. Again we wonder if the women deported from the US and other nations will be prosecuted by the ROK as "criminals."

(SITE NOTE: Sarcastically, we also wonder if these deported individuals will be counted against the ROK's "rejection rate" that affects its application for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). If Korea becomes eligible for the VWP (after falling below a 3.0 percent rejection rate), the Korean prostitutes can simply come to the US without visas to be hookers for 90 days and then return home -- a sort of rotating prostitution in America or a "working vacation" program for hookers.)

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April 2006

Police to Crack Down on 24 Sex Trade Districsts (Apr 2006) The Korea Times on 28 Apr 2006 reported that the National Police Agency cracked down on sex trades between 17 Apr-23 Apr. The police have decided to strengthen crackdown on sex trades by designating 24 areas nationwide as intensive surveillance zones, where new-types of sex trades are made at bars and massage shops. Each agency has designated one or two sex trade zones in their districts.

The police plan to organize special units at each police station, which will exclusively conduct crackdowns on sex trades, in order to prevent expansion of the illegal acts. Between April 17 and 23, the NPA cracked down on sex trades at massage shops nationwide. It detected 248 illegal sex business including 88 prostitution cases and eight cases involving minors, and arrested 16 people such as shop owners. Most of the detected cases were made in three areas which have been included in the 24 special zones. (SITE NOTE: The crackdowns have been ineffective as these businesses have gone high tech with surveillance cameras watching the entrance for police activity. Unless the police are undercover sting operations, the businesses are warned beforehand of the approaching police.)

The 24 zones include the areas around Renaissance Seoul Hotel in Yoksam-dong, southern Seoul, Kyung Nam Hotel in Tongdaemun-gu, central Seoul, Suwon city hall, Kyonggi Province, and Yonsan intersection in Pusan. The NPA will directly lead massive crackdowns on four sex-trade zones among them -- Yoksam-dong, Somyon of Pusan, Kuri market in Kyonggi Province, and Tujong-dong of Chonan, South Chungchong Province -- as the number of sex-selling shops and bars there are so many that regional police stations would not thoroughly crack down. The police estimate there are 118 places providing sex trades in Yoksam-dong, 207 in Somyon, 446 in Kuri and 219 in Tujong-dong.

(SITE NOTE: The appearance is that the NPA publicized this latest crackdown because of the bad press it has received in March and April with a serial rapist (of middle and high school students) being captured -- and then a serial rapist/murderer being captured. The fact that these people eluded the police with task forces in the hundreds attempting to track them down didn't help the Police public relations. However, following the announcement of this most recent crackdown, there were complaints from the residents and businesses -- especially the major Hotels and Lotte Department Store used in identifying the "sex trade" areas. Some of the identified areas contained respectable businesses, schools and residential areas -- without sex trade businesses. Instead the real areas were nearby. Many complained that the publicity was giving the impression that sex was blatant in their areas. The police admitted that some of the identified areas did NOT have the sex trade in their areas and the names were used for reference points only. In other words, the Police were doing this as a publicity stunt. In addition the police admitting that there were not enough police to go around meant this would be a half-hearted effort from the start. The police continued to receive bad press over their inability to catch serial rapists -- and the public perception that the police did nothing. There continued to be more sensational stories of serial sex crimes -- the most recent in April being the death sentence for a criminal who raped a mother in front of her daughter, a sister in front of her sister, etc. A true unfeeling monster that the police did not catch as he committed his crimes across the nation.)

After the government enforced a special law to prevent prostitution in September 2004, many of red-light districts have been closed down. Sex workers and brothel owners, however, have sought other ways to continue their business. They began to sell sex at massage shops, saunas and bars, and such business has created new areas of sex-for-money trades. According to the NPA, the number of brothels in red light districts across the nation has decreased by 38 percent from 1,679, the number before the anti-prostitution law took effect, to 1,043. The number of women engaged in sex trades has also declined by 56 percent from 5,567 to 2,463. (Source: Korea Times.) (SITE NOTE: Registered prostitutes operated in the red light districts but many went mobile. The decline in numbers simply means that the prostitutes were no longer registered. In 2004, we warned of another phenomena in which sex for sale moved to chat rooms on the internet. In addition, as the prostitutes abandoned the red-light districts, they moved their operations into the neighborhoods. Cards with telephone numbers are stuck on telephone booths and cars parked along the street. Sex has gone mobile.)

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June 2006

South Korea receives Tier 1 Rating -- BUT ROK Still Trafficker of Women Prostitutes to US (June 2006) Kyodo News reported on 6 Jun that the US again harshly criticized the DPRK and the PRC for their continuing complacency in the face of human trafficking within and across their borders in the annual report released on 5 Jun. In the State Department's sixth annual Trafficking in Persons Report, the PRC remained on the Tier 2 Watch List, and the DPRK made no headway out of its Tier 3 classification, a place reserved for countries with the worst human trafficking records.

South Korea was ranked in the highest category in the report, Tier 1. The report lauded a South Korean law enacted in 2004 aimed at prostitution. "The law sends a clear message that the government is serious about taking action against a crime that went largely unpunished in the past," it said. It also noted Seoul's cooperation in reducing the number of foreign prostitutes working near U.S. bases in South Korea. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

REPUBLIC OF KOREA (TIER 1)

The Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) is a source, transit, and destination country for women who are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Women from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.), the Philippines, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries are trafficked for sexual exploitation to the R.O.K. Korean women are trafficked to Japan and to the United States, sometimes via Canada or Mexico, for forced prostitution.

The Government of the Republic of Korea fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. During 2005, the government continued to provide substantial resources for victim care, and remains a pioneer and global leader on anti-trafficking education and demand reduction measures. The government sustained an aggressive law enforcement campaign aimed at curbing trafficking and exploitation of women. The government also continues to make significant progress to strengthen victim support mechanisms and improve the treatment of women in Korean society. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) play leading roles in the effort to curb trafficking and exploitation. [snip]

Finally, the government continued its cooperation with United States Forces Korea (USFK) to address sexual exploitation surrounding USFK bases in the country. As a result, sources suggest a significant decline in the number of foreign women working near U.S. bases.

However, we question the "Tier 1" rating for Korea if the the U.S. Consul General to Seoul said Korean prostitutes who stay illegally in the U.S. are a major psychological barrier to a visa waiver for Korean visitors there. THESE PROSTITUTES ARE TRAFFICKED!!! (SITE NOTE: Later in June 2006, it was revealed that the report did indicate that Korea was cited as being a country where human trafficking originated and transited. The news reports failed to mention this, but it came up when the US Envoy for Human Rights surfaced objections over the Kaesong Industrial Zone use of cheap North Korean labor -- and the fact was released in the press as an afterthought.)

Michael Kirby told reporters on 8 Jun 2006 it does not help Korea's efforts for a visa waiver if Korean women are uncovered every time there is a prostitution bust in the U.S. Kirby said apart from decreasing the percentage of visa refusals, Korea must also cooperate in a system of joint law enforcement and ensure that Americans have a good impression of Koreans. It was the first time a U.S. Embassy official has tied Korean prostitutes to the visa waiver. This suggests Korea must deal with the problem even if it does manage to bring down its visa rejection rate to the required level of 3 percent. Kirby said on one occasion last year 100 Korean women were arrested on prostitution charges in a single day in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Korean women were also held in Connecticut, New York and Huston this year, he said, with Korean women forming a bigger part of the prostitution problem in the U.S, than those of any other nationality during the last one to two years. The consul said many of the women are smuggled into the U.S. via Canada or Mexico, and some of them enter the country on forged visas. Korean women pay between US$15,000 and 20,000 to traffickers and often see no option except prostitution to pay them off, he added. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.))

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Worry of Korean Prostitutes Exodus to US (June 2006) An internal government report obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo says that a rising number of Korean prostitutes displaced by a crackdown on their trade in Korea are finding their way to the United States. In 2004, laws regulating prostitution were tightened and a police crackdown has driven the once very open trade underground here. That tendency to look abroad for greener pastures is not just a problem for American law enforcement, the report added. Korea is hoping to be included soon among countries whose citizens are able to travel to the United States for temporary visits without visas -- Visa Waiver Program. The report, which has not been made public, apparently prompted the formation of a committee including the foreign and justice ministries, the national police and the prosecutors to come up with ways of stemming the migration of prostitutes abroad.

However, an upsurge in Korean prostitutes and their pimps could impact VWP entry. The report said Los Angeles police estimate that there are 8,000 Korean prostitutes working in that city and its suburbs. Many of those Koreans, the report said, entered the United States through Mexico or Canada. Koreans can travel to Canada without a visa, and the long, undefended border makes it relatively easy for someone to slip across.

The U.S. Department of State included South Korea as one of the countries of "origin, transit and destination of human trafficking" in its latest annual Trafficking in Persons Report, although it lauded government attempts here to stem that trade, citing the 2004 legislation.

U.S. media have noted the increasing number of Koreans arrested for suspected prostitution. On June 30 last year, police arrested 42 handlers and 150 female prostitutes, all women, in Los Angeles and San Francisco. A 400-person team comprising police, FBI agents and immigration authorities were involved in the operation. After that incident, a committee of Korean, American and Canadian government officials was formed to try to find ways of curbing the problem, including how to keep Korean passports out of the hands of sex workers intending to ply their trade abroad. A Los Angeles police spokesman said that about 90 percent of the department's 70-80 monthly arrests for prostitution involve Korean women. In a recent case elsewhere in the United States, 33 Korean women were arrested on prostitution charges in Waterbury, Connecticut, on June 2. A government investigation conducted with U.S. police, the report said, showed that prostitution is widespread in districts where Koreans congregate, especially in massage parlors and at the Korean equivalent of short-time lodgings, called "love hotels" here. But the report added that the trade is moving out of Koreatowns into inner cities as well; some prostitutes reportedly work from their apartments, stimulating anti-Korean sentiment. An official here said some Korean woman have found it difficult to find apartments to rent. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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August 2006

Crackdown on sex trade leads to 14,688 arrested : police On 7 Aug Yonhap News reported that "despite the adoption of a toughened anti-prostitution law in 2004, the number of people buying or selling sex in South Korea has not decreased." In a nationwide 50-day clampdown on sex trade in June and July, a total of 14,688 people were arrested, about two-thirds of them in massage parlors, barber shops and other unconventional sex fronts, they said.

"We believe 90 percent of sex workers belong to these aberrant forms of shops," Superintendent Kim Hang-gon at the National Police Agency said. "The percentage hasn't decreased since 2002 when I first saw the statistics." Of those arrested, 10,013 were caught at unconventional sex fronts such as "sports-massage centers, rest-tels, massage parlors and decadent barber shops," he said.

Prostitution was made illegal in South Korean when its government was established in 1948 but it has prospered. Since a new law was adopted in 2004 calling for tougher punishment for sex traders, much of the business has gone underground, even to the Internet. A total of 3,332 people were caught while attempting to buy or sell sex over the internet, police officials said. "Women wanting to sell their bodies get on chatting sites and get 'offer memos' from men," Kim said. "We track the men down after procuring their numbers from the women." Kim said that the police plan to perform a "special cyber patrol" on the Internet as it is now the summer vacation time for most schools and some teenagers may be tempted to get on internet for sex trade. (Source: Yonhap News.)

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31 Arrested in Reputed Korean Sex-Slave Trafficking Along East Coast (Aug 2006) On 16 Aug 2006, federal agents broke up a sex-slave trafficking ring along the East Coast that coerced Korean women into working as prostitutes in massage parlors and spas, some in upscale Washington neighborhoods such as Cleveland Park and Glover Park. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI arrested 31 people Tuesday, including 19 in New York and four in the District. They also raided 18 businesses, including one in Baltimore and five in Washington, three of them downtown.

In all, 23 Korean women in Washington and 44 in New York, Baltimore, New Haven, Conn., and Philadelphia were rounded up and interviewed to determine whether they were involuntarily part of the ring that forced some women into prostitution to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in fees for being smuggled into the United States, authorities said. The charges, including conspiracy to engage in human trafficking and interstate transportation of women for the purpose of prostitution, resulted from hours of wiretapped conversations.

According to court documents, recruiters in South Korea and the United States arranged travel to the United States for Korean women interested in making money for their families. The women were provided false immigration documents or were turned over to handlers in Canada or Mexico, who smuggled them into the country, the documents said. Once they arrived in the United States, the women often were transported to Flushing, N.Y., where they were told they would have to work as prostitutes to offset their costs for being smuggled into the country, authorities said.

According to the indictments, five middlemen in Flushing took orders from the East Coast for Korean women and charged for procuring and delivering the women. The business operators often asked for specific physical attributes, and some in Washington said that some of the women were "too tall" or "not satisfactory," according to recorded conversations. Owners took a big cut of the customers' fees and sent some of that money to South Korea to pay for the smuggling fees, authorities said. Business operators often took away the women's identification and travel documents and led them to believe that they would be turned over to U.S. authorities or that their families would be harmed if they fled before paying off their outstanding smuggling fee. (Source: Washington Post.) (SITE NOTE: Korea's human trafficking is alive and well.)

Increasing Bad Publicity over Korean Prostitutes (Oct 2006) An internal ROK government report obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo says that a rising number of Korean prostitutes displaced by a crackdown on their trade in Korea are finding their way to the United States. In 2004, laws regulating prostitution were tightened and a police crackdown has driven the once very open trade underground here. That tendency to look abroad for greener pastures is not just a problem for American law enforcement, the report added. Korea is hoping to be included soon among countries whose citizens are able to travel to the United States for temporary visits without visas -- Visa Waiver Program. The report, which has not been made public, apparently prompted the formation of a committee including the foreign and justice ministries, the national police and the prosecutors to come up with ways of stemming the migration of prostitutes abroad.

However, an upsurge in Korean prostitutes and their pimps could impact Visa Waiver Program (VWP) entry. The report said Los Angeles police estimate that there are 8,000 Korean prostitutes working in that city and its suburbs. Many of those Koreans, the report said, entered the United States through Mexico or Canada. Koreans can travel to Canada without a visa, and the long, undefended border makes it relatively easy for someone to slip across. (SITE NOTE: To qualify for the VWP the ROK must have less than a 3.0 reject rate (of those who apply for a visa) before it can be considered. As of Sep 2006, the ROK was still above the 3.0 mark and fails to qualify -- despite the promises of various diplomats and Congressmen that they would attempt to support the ROK's entry to the VWP.)

The U.S. Department of State included South Korea as one of the countries of "origin, transit and destination of human trafficking" in its latest annual Trafficking in Persons Report, although it lauded government attempts here to stem that trade, citing the 2004 ROK legislation. A good reference on human trafficking in the US is Sex Traffic giving a rough overview of the problem.

U.S. media have noted the increasing number of Koreans arrested for suspected prostitution. On June 30 last year, police arrested 42 handlers and 150 female prostitutes, all women, in Los Angeles and San Francisco. A 400-person team comprising police, FBI agents and immigration authorities were involved in the operation. After that incident, a committee of Korean, American and Canadian government officials was formed to try to find ways of curbing the problem, including how to keep Korean passports out of the hands of sex workers intending to ply their trade abroad. A Los Angeles police spokesman said that about 90 percent of the department's 70-80 monthly arrests for prostitution involve Korean women. In a recent case elsewhere in the United States, 33 Korean women were arrested on prostitution charges in Waterbury, Connecticut, on June 2. A government investigation conducted with U.S. police, the report said, showed that prostitution is widespread in districts where Koreans congregate, especially in massage parlors and at the Korean equivalent of short-time lodgings, called "love hotels" here. But the report added that the trade is moving out of Koreatowns into inner cities as well; some prostitutes reportedly work from their apartments, stimulating anti-Korean sentiment. An official here said some Korean woman have found it difficult to find apartments to rent. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

What is disturbing is the amount of articles that are being written about the KOREAN prostitutes are on the increase. This means that the general public in America is starting to form opinions about Korean women as primarily being sex workers. Every month new exposes appear in the press as the arrests of Korean prostitutes increased. The reality is that the police are having a hard time closing down massage parlors fronting as houses of prostitution since arrests cannot be made unless money is seen to change hands. If the women are illegal aliens, they are handed over to immigration authorities.

The women who are illegally trafficked are so afraid of their traffickers -- linked back to organized crime in Korea -- that they will not cooperate with police. Thus massage parlors can only be shut down by having their licenses revoked for violations such as having a bed used instead of a massage table or health violations if the trafficked women live on the premises.

To compound matters, the latest nationwide coordinated raids in Sep 2006 "forwarded" the Korean females who were found to be illegal aliens to Alburquerque for processing and deportation. Many of these women came illegally over the border from Mexico and then were processed through LA's Korea town before being farmed out to the rest of the country. Unfortunately, a Korean English-language newspaper sent a reporter there to interview the women and somehow came away with the conclusion that the America was at fault for luring the women to illegally enter the country to engage in illegal prostitution. Needless to say, the internet picked up the article as a topic of blog discussions.

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Picking up on this interest, a four part expose by the San Francisco Chronicle in Oct 2006 on the KOREAN prostitution problem was picked up by the world press. (See SEX TRAFFICKING San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave, San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 2006; Diary of a Sex Slave," Part 1: Fooled by traffickers in South Korea, San Francisco Chronicle, October 7, 2006; Diary of a Sex Slave," Part 2: A YOUTHFUL MISTAKE You Mi was a typical college student, until her first credit card got her into trouble, San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 2006; Diary of a Sex Slave," Part 3: FREE, BUT TRAPPED In San Francisco, You Mi begins to put her life back together -- but the cost is high San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2006 for articles.)

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KNP Cooperation with FBI on Korean Prostitution (Dec 2006) Hoping to crack down on trafficking rings that smuggle South Korean women to brothels in the United States, the two countries announced on 19 Dec that they will launch a joint task force. The National Police Agency will cooperate with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in its probe into prostitution in the United States by South Koreans. The police said the prostitution issue has downgraded the nation's image abroad and has been a stumbling block in entering the U.S. visa waiver program. An official noted that last summer's crackdown on over one hundred South Koreans for prostitution and related crimes in New York shocked Americans and adversely affected South Korea and its people. (Source: KBS News.)

The National Police Agency said it has agreed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to set up the ad hoc body. "We had working-level talks with FBI officials in Washington, including Thomas Fuentes, the special agent in charge of the Office of International Operations," the police said. "And we reached an agreement last Tuesday (19 Dec) in Washington." The two agencies have agreed to take measures to combat passport forgeries and alterations as well as control illegal immigration, they said. The South Korean police will dispatch officers to Washington early next year, the police said.

The two countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation on other international crimes, such as drug trafficking. "Human trafficking is one of the reasons that South Korea was not able to meet the criteria for the U.S. visa waiver program this year," the officials at the police agency said. Nearly 5,000 South Korean sex workers are believed to be working in approximately 1,000 brothels disguised as acupuncture shops, massage parlors and saunas in the United States, according to South Korean government reports. The workers, mostly recruited through Internet sites, are trafficked to the U.S. by organized trafficking rings, many via Mexico or Canada, the government said. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

Hookers Busted in U.S. Visa Scam (Dec 2006) Police have busted 42 prostitutes for using forged documents to get a U.S. visa. Police in Seoul also detained a broker identified as Kim (47) on charges of faking a variety of documents to help them get the visas.

According to police, Kim and his Korean-American accomplice had been mocking up bank account records, job certificates and Family Register documents for their clients and training them for the visa interviews since September 2004, charging W4 million (US$1=W928) per person. The two made profits of W1 billion in all by doing so. Half of their 500 clients succeeded in getting a U.S. visa. Their clients included mostly 20-something women who wanted the visa to work in the sex trade in large U.S. cities. Kim, one of the women, told police the number of customers here dropped after new anti-prostitution laws were introduced two years ago, and word is that prostitutes can earn at least US$10,000 a month in the U.S.

"As far as we know, some 200 Korean women were caught for prostitution in the U.S. this year alone and 100 of them were deported," a police officer said. "The number of cases where the U.S. Embassy seizes forged visa application documents rose to 200 a month. This is a serious stumbling block to Koreans being included in the U.S. visa waiver program." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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September 2006

Alcohol Rules in USFJ Marines change -- USFK Stays the Same (Sep 2006) The controversy over "underage drinking" resurfaced when the Marine policy in Japan and Okinawa reverted to 20 in line with Japanese law. Other services had converted earlier. On 7 Sep the USFK officials referred to Command Policy No. 8, signed by commander Gen. B.B. Bell on May 28. That letter states that all military and civilians under age 21 — to include contractors, technical representatives and family members — cannot buy, drink or be served alcohol beverages on or off base in South Korea. Troops who fail to follow the rules can be punished by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the letter. And civilians can face administrative sanctions, including the loss of a base pass and other privileges.

Alcohol rules to stay the same in South Korea

By T.D. Flack, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, September 9, 2006

SEOUL — U.S. Forces Korea officials said Thursday that the drinking age for its personnel is 21 — and it's going to stay that way. "USFK is not considering a revision of the current policy," spokesman Dave Oten replied via e-mail when asked whether the command planned to mirror a new U.S. Marine Corps policy announced Thursday for Okinawa and Japan.

Lt. Gen. Joseph F. Weber, commander of Marine Corps Bases Japan, lowered the drinking age for his troops from 21 to 20 effective this coming Monday. Marine officials said the change ensures the Corps' policy is consistent with Japanese law and that the Marines will be treated like other U.S. servicemembers and the Japanese public.

U.S. military officials in South Korea raised the drinking age from 20 to 21 on Nov. 1, 2004, with the stated goal of reducing the number of alcohol-related incidents involving younger troops.

That change caused controversy with the off-base bars and restaurants that cater to the U.S. military crowd in South Korea, where the legal drinking age is 20.

South Koreans opposed to the higher drinking age say the U.S. military forces them to follow American rules with the threat of killing their business. If an establishment doesn't enforce the U.S. military drinking age, the U.S. military deems it "off-limits" to its troops.

The issue flared up earlier this summer when Area III commander Col. Michael J. Taliento Jr., placed two bars off-limits after an undercover investigation showed they were serving troops that were underage — at least by U.S. rules.

A new memorandum of understanding was signed among Area III and local entertainment associations following a weeklong protest by bar owners outside Camp Humphreys. Some bars decided to ban troops under 21 while other owners considered creating an "underage club" for the 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds who still want to dance and socialize off base.

Yi Hun-hui, president of the Korea Special Tourist Association, Pyeongtaek Chapter, said Thursday that he'd like to address the issue with USFK when the time is right.

He said he wants to wait until U.S.-South Korean discussions on the future of the alliance are finished before complaining. "I mean, why only in Korea?" he asked about stricter drinking age.

Soldiers who talked to Stars and Stripes on Thursday contended that individual responsibility is the key to behavior, not necessarily a stricter drinking age.

Pfc. Cristin Baughman, 21, was 19 when she first arrived in South Korea.

"It's all about personal responsibility," said Baughman, of Area I headquarters company. "There are plenty of people over 21 who can't handle their alcohol, just like people under 21 … is a year really going to make that much of a difference?"

Sgt. Nick Drumm, 23, said he understands keeping the on-base rules in line with U.S. laws. But he said he believes U.S. servicemembers should follow the host nation's laws when they leave the gates.

Several soldiers said they didn't believe lowering the drinking age in South Korea would result in any further illegal or violent incidents. People seeking trouble will find a way, whatever the legal drinking age, they said. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

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2007

January 2007

USFK places more bars and clubs off limits (Jan 2007) Within the past few months there has been a concerted effort by USFK Security Forces to identify and place off-limits those establishments that do not meet USFK regulations. Bar owners have complained that they have been unfairly treated and that they were persecuted by the base officials. The fact that the bar owners have lost business for the past three years due to the crackdowns makes the issue a very heated topic.

Ten more clubs and bars were placed off limits by U.S. Forces Korea as of Wednesday, according to USFK officials. Most of the bars are in the Itaewon neighborhood outside Seoul's Yongsan Garrison. They were banned because of prostitution and human trafficking concerns, according to the USFK Web site. One spot, Club Paradise in Kunsan, was banned due to force protection issues. (SITE NOTE: The prostitution issue and human trafficking concerns illustrates a shift in USFK policy from the GI's being prosecuted under the ambiguous UCMJ regulations to focusing on the root problem. The root problem is the provider not the end-user. The targets now seem to be the Korean bars -- and backhandedly at the Korean government which has perpetuated this problem in the first place and even exported it to the US.)

After September 2001, USFK began banning bars and clubs that allowed backpacks but did not check them. Other restrictions have irked business owners in areas frequented by servicemembers, but most owners have had little choice but to work with those regulations or lose business.

Joint Army Regulation 190-24 governs off-limits rules for all military branches. The regulation places responsibility on commanders to form disciplinary control boards with representation from various base services. The boards have wide discretion to decree that a bar or club has ?undesirable conditions that may adversely affect members of the military or their families.

A person whose establishment has been declared off-limits may petition the control board's president to remove the restriction. The regulation requires that substantive information be required to place an establishment off-limits. It is essential that boards do not act arbitrarily, the document states.

As of 9 Jan, the following areas had clubs placed off-limits during the past 30 days for these concerns:

Bosandong Ville near Camp Casey: Club Liberty, health and safety.
• Itaewon near Yongsan Garrison: First Class Club, Mississippi, Oasis Club #13, Oasis Club #26 and Pretty Ketty, all for prostitution.
• Anjung-ri near Camp Humphreys: Ace Club; no details were available.
• Songtan (Shinjang Mall) near Osan AB: Geckos Bar; no details were available.
• A-Town Near Kunsan Air Base: Club Paradise, force protection; and The Boss, for which no details were available.

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Feb 2007

2nd ID limits soldiers to .10 blood alcohol level (Feb 2007) On Feb 11, the Stars and Stripes reported that soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Division have been ordered to keep their blood alcohol concentration below .10 or they could face punishment. “Each soldier is responsible for knowing when he or she is above the BAC ‘limit,’ just as drivers ensure they must not drive a vehicle when their BAC reaches or exceeds a certain limit,” according to a new policy released Thursday by division commander Maj. Gen. James Coggin. Soldiers who exceed the limit are subject to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the letter. (SITE NOTE: This alcohol policy was NOT implemented at Osan AB as far as we know, but the Army personnel at Osan may be affected. Despite two barracks rape trials -- where alcohol intoxication was involved -- in February 2007, no restrictions on alcohol consumption nor barracks visitation was surfaced for USAF personnel. The 2nd Aviation Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment recently restricted its soldiers at Camp Humphreys (K-16) from having members of the opposite sex in their dorm rooms. The move came after an alleged sexual assault. Other units have had limits placed on how late they may have others in their room, regardless of gender.)

The new rule was ordered, the letter stated, to “ensure that irresponsible alcohol consumption does not deter 2ID from accomplishing its armistice training or wartime fighting mission.” The 2nd Infantry Division had more than 100 alcohol-related incidents cited in military police reports in January, an increase over both January 2005 and January 2006, according to the division’s weekly bulletin. Underage drinking was a “significant contributor” to those citations, according to the bulletin.

But 2nd ID officials declined to provide exact figures on the incidents, saying they believe the higher numbers were the result of enhanced reporting and detection of alcohol-related incidents. The new policy letter directs all units to coordinate quarterly training with officials from substance abuse programs to show soldiers “what the .10 BAC level is and what effects an above-.10-BAC has.”

The policy letter includes a chart of approximate blood alcohol levels corresponding with weight and number of drinks. However, the policy letter states that the chart should be used “as general guidance only”; gender, food, body composition and several other factors also play a role in blood alcohol levels. Unit commanders at all levels can order a blood alcohol test based on “probable cause” that a soldier’s blood alcohol level is above .10, according to the letter. “‘Probable cause’ is defined as a reasonable belief that a person is, in this case, intoxicated beyond the .10 limit,” wrote 2nd ID Staff Judge Advocate Lt. Col. Walt Hudson in an e-mail response. “It is not a mere suspicion or hunch but based on current and relevant information.”

Inability to walk, slurred speech and alcohol odor are included among probable-cause considerations, Hudson said. Although military police carry breath analysis testers, only legal tests administered in base medical clinics will be used to officially determine blood alcohol levels, officials said. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

UPDATE: March 2007 Recent measures limiting alcohol intake throughout the 2nd Infantry Division and in some cases imposing barracks restrictions are not mass punishment, according to the commanding general. Maj. Gen. James Coggin’s Feb. 8 policy letter limiting 2nd ID soldiers in South Korea to a .10 blood alcohol concentration is “mass protection” from ruined careers and potential crime, he told Stars and Stripes this week in an interview. “I do not see it as a form of punishment in all candor,” Coggin said.

Some soldiers have questioned the policy’s effect on morale, especially when added to the nightly curfew, inability to own a vehicle and other Area I restrictions already in place. When asked about the policy, Coggin pointed to a guide that was distributed and shows how much a soldier could still drink. A 160-pound soldier can still have four drinks per hour and remain under the .10 threshold, according to the guide.

However, the policy letter also explains the guide is not an official measurement. Factors including body composition, food intake, age and hormone levels can affect blood alcohol concentration. How the policy will be enforced also has raised concerns among some soldiers. When asked whether a soldier with an otherwise spotless record could potentially have his career ruined by criminal charges after drinking past the limit, Coggin said that such action wasn’t the point of the new policy.

Nevertheless, the policy clearly states that it is punitive and that violators can be subject to court-martial. Whether to pursue that route depends on the individual case, Coggin said. Counseling, intervention or even just “chewing out” a soldier could be more appropriate in some cases, he said.

Coggin emphasized he is the convening authority who ultimately decides whether to pursue court-martial charges. The program will be evaluated after 90 days. Coggin said he did not have any quantitative measurement in mind that would determine the policy’s success, such as a percentage drop in assaults or blotter incidents. In addition to the alcohol policy, soldiers throughout 2nd ID have seen various changes to their barracks policies.

The 2nd Aviation Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment recently restricted its soldiers at K-16 Air Base in south Seoul from having members of the opposite sex in their dorm rooms. The move came after an alleged sexual assault. Other units have had limits placed on how late they may have others in their room, regardless of gender. Coggin said he would not issue uniform rules for barracks, instead relying on commanders to make determinations on what their units need.

“Each command climate has to be assessed on its own merits,” he said. For now, that means commanders have discretion to do what they need to do to prevent alcohol-related crime. Coggin said he understood that might make some soldiers unhappy. However, it’s ultimately in their professional interests, and in the interest of the Army’s ability to respond to any potential threat from North Korea, he said. "They may not like what I’m trying to do, but I’m trying to look out for their best interests,” he said. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

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Gen Bell repeats zero-tolerance on prostitution and human trafficking -- but still working on sexual assaults. (Mar 2007) The following was excerpted from Gen BB Bell's report before the House Armed Services Committee on 7 Mar 2007. (Source: Gen Bell before House Armed Services Committee, 7 Mar 2007.)

Prostitution, Human Trafficking, and Sexual Assault

United States Forces Korea has a zero tolerance for prostituion and human trafficking (P&HT). To ensure members are fully aware of our policies regarding P&HT, the command has initiated a four-pronged approach focusing on awareness, identification, reduction and enforcement. This initiative has had positive effect for the command. In January 2006, a Department of Defense of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) team visited USFK as part of an Evaluation of DoD Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP). In their report, the inspection team praised USFK for aggressively attacking the problem of TIP at the "strategic, operational and tactical levels." and further stated "the USFK anti-TIP program continues to set the standard for DoD efforts to combat TIP." In addition to DoD's USFK visit, the USFK IG completed several comprehensive inspections of command policies and climate relevant to prostitution and its links to human trafficking. Recommendations from both DoD and USFK IG inspections continue to be incorporated into the command's strategy.

The Command's initiatives are equally important in combating sexual assault. United States Forces Korea has developed and implemented education programs for training our leaders and Service member on awareness and prevention of sexual assaults. The foundation of our USFK program is a 40-hour centralized and certified Victim Advocate and Sexual Assault Response Coordinator training program. This training stresses sexual assault risk factor and victim care. To date, our program has focused primarily on awareness and response. We are currently developing a Sexual Assault Prevention Program that meets research based criteria for addressing individual attitudes, behavior and perceptions that place Service Members at risk for victimization and perpetrating sexual assault.

I will continue to be vigilant in enforcing the sexual assault prevention programs and zero tolerance approach adopted by the command. Promoting dignity and respect are of the utmost importance and a mandate we fully embrace within the United States Forces Korea. (Source: Gen Bell before House Armed Services Committee, 7 Mar 2007, pp 39-42.)

Breaking this down, the General stated that the DoD inspected the program and praised it. BUT the General failed to mention that the DoD program itself is under development and is being evaluated itself. The USFK is the "lead the fleet" of the programs because it was the one singled out for standing the heat along -- praise Gen LaPorte who had to stand alone against the assaults from Congress and the US press -- while all the other commands shrugged their shoulders and waited for the smoke to clear. The real culprit was the ROK who fostered human trafficking -- and even today exports its prostitutes to the US. Thus when the DoD praised the USFK programs, it was true. It was in the forefront developing programs so it could dodge the bullets from Congress and the press.

As to sexual assaults, the verbage only said we have a trained Victim Advocate on duty. DoD regulations in 2006 expanded the ruling so that a victim could be treated without the initiation of reporting the incident to the command structure. However, the General also admits that there still is no program to PREVENT sexual assaults. Currently the command policy seems to be to blame it on the alcohol, because all the incidents seem to involve the excessive use of alcohol. However, it misses the point that the sexual predator who rapes is probably the one who is NOT over-imbibing so that he can prey on those who do overindulge in alcohol. The USFK current policy focuses on the victim as being partly responsible. In truth, the perpetrator is the person who should be identified and punished.

Our opinion is to start placing the military men and women on separate floors -- like in the good ol' days. Also the women should be allowed to attack any man found violating their barracks area to such an extent that his ability to procreate will be seriously compromised. The word "off-limits" areas should be enforced. The "old fashioned" idea of using the "common areas" for mixed-sex gatherings enforced -- instead of allowing meetings no matter how innocent in the privacy of rooms. As an alternative, perhaps an "open door" policy could be worked out if it becomes a major heartburn. Those who currently enjoy the privacy of their rooms for trysts with military or off-base females obviously will complain, but the rule should be that hotels are available downtown. The two assault/rape court martials on Osan AB in Mar 2007 probably would not have happened if these rules were enforced.

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March 2007

More Koreans Engage in Sex Trade in US (Mar 2007) (See Police to Crack Down on 24 Sex Trade Districsts (Apr-Dec 2006) for 2006 actions.) The number of Korean women engaged in prostitution overseas _ both voluntary or forced _ has been steadily increasing after the government's crackdown on the domestic sex industry in 2004. According to the U.S. State Department on Monday, based on the law for protecting victims of slave trading, the country provided shelter to 230 foreign victims in 2005 and Koreans accounted for the largest portion at 23.5 percent. (SITE NOTE: According to articles in the US, this is just the tip of the iceberg with thousands of prostitutes smuggled into the US through Mexico and US. But what is more revealing is how many enter on tourist visas for 90-days -- and then return to Korea to await their next trip to the US.)

Korea was followed by Thailand, Peru and Mexico in terms of the number of the victims who were offered shelter. It also said that a sudden increase in Koreans seems to be related to the 2004 crackdown. Although victims of labor exploitation are included in the victims of slave trade, most of the Korean victims were involved in the sex trade, according to the officials.

Yoon Won-ho, a lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party who has been leading an investigation into the Korean sex trade in the United States, said it was highly likely the illegal activity was enjoying a rebound in Korean communities abroad through underground means, such as massage parlors, bars, private homes and the Internet. Yoon's seven-member investigation team has been discussing the issue with Korean residents in the U.S. as well as officials from human rights organizations there.

Skeptics have argued that the strengthened crackdown on prostitution opened the doors to other venues for the sex industry, which law enforcement authorities find it harder to deal. Meanwhile, ``Hanyoyon,'' an association of female sex laborers from 10 red-light districts dotted with brothels including Chongnyangni, Chonho-dong and Miari on 19 Mar held a press conference in central Seoul to urge the government to abolish the anti-prostitution law and Seoul's urban redevelopment project which entails pulling down brothels. ``The government should abolish the anti-prostitution law and should listen to the voices of sex laborers. The city's redevelopment project chases sex laborers away to the streets, making our lives more miserable. Brothels are our precious workplace through which we can make our future better,'' the workers said with sunglasses on. ``The government should show how much of its budget was specifically spent for rehabilitation and welfare of women in the sex industry after the anti-prostitution law went into effect.'' The organization also pointed out that there is a lack of disease control for sex laborers who have come back to the country after being expelled from foreign countries for prostitution. (Source: Korea Times.)

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November 200 7

Revision to military code puts sex crimes in line with other statutes (Nov 2007) The U.S. military has revised the Uniform Code of Military Justice to consolidate sex crimes under one article, specifying the elements of each crime and setting forth the maximum penalties, military and civilian attorneys said. Article 120 of the UCMJ now includes expanded descriptions of the sexual assault and carnal knowledge statues and brings various other sexual offenses under the same article, said Robert Reed, the associate deputy general counsel for military justice and personnel policy in the Pentagon. The offenses previously were scattered in various military legal statutes. The revisions, which took effect Oct. 1, came about after Congress asked the Defense Department to review its statutes governing sexual offenses and bring them more in line with federal sex crimes statutes, Reed said.

Incidents of sexual assault and harassment in the military have gained public attention in recent years, including reports of rape and sexual assault at the service academies and against women deployed to the war zones. Article 120 now includes rape of a child, aggravated sexual assault both to an adult and child, aggravated sexual abuse of a child, indecent acts, forcible pandering, indecent exposure and wrongful sexual contact, among other offenses. A subsection to the article deals with stalking.

The revisions have sparked legal debate. The new language does not specify the government’s need to prove a victim’s “lack of consent.” Instead, the government must prove solely that the perpetrator had sex with the victim by force, Reed said. “That meets the element of the offense if established beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.

The rewrite shifts the burden of proof from the government to the defense, said David Court, who has 30 years of experience defending U.S. servicemembers at courts-martial in Europe. “The defense will have the burden to show by a preponderance of evidence that the accused mistakenly believed the other person involved in the incident was a consenting participant,” he said. “Then the burden shifts to the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was no consent. “I ask you, how that’s possible?” Court said. “If a decision has been made by a preponderance of the evidence that he was mistaken, that should equal not guilty.” In other words, if the accused thinks the victim consented, and his defense attorney can prove that, then the accused should be found not guilty.

Reed said eliminating the “without consent” requirement refocuses the case from the victim to the perpetrator. If the defense raises the issue, Reed said, the government then must address it and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the sex was, in fact, unwanted.

The consent issue has stirred grumblings in the military legal community, and the change will be addressed at the next round of reviews by the Joint Service Committee on Military Justice in January, Reed said. One civilian defense attorney said the revision provides better guidelines for both sides of a case. “The new version breaks down each foreseeable type of sexual assault, specifies the elements that distinguish one from another, and sets forth maximum penalties for each,” Guy Womak said. “It basically simplified the charging and defense of such offenses by providing more specificity as to what constitutes each variant of the offenses.” (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

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Fewer Red Light Districts BUT Business EXPANDING (Nov 2008) According to the statistics kept by police, there are fewer red-light districts than three years ago but prostitution is flourishing even better without them.

Three years have passed since the Special Anti-Prostitution Law went into effect but prostitution-related crimes are not decreasing and every year since there have been a greater number and variety of prostitution-related businesses. It was announced on the 25th that according to research made available by the police to National Assembly Representative Gwon Gyeong-seok of the Grand National Party, red-light districts decreased through police enforcement but prostitution-related crimes increased every year.

According to Assemblyman Gwon’s research there were 1,679 red-light districts and 5,567 brothels in September of 2004 and 995 areas in September of this year, a 40.7% decrease, and 2,508 brothels, a 55% decrease. But the average number of crimes discovered per day has gone from 47 in 2004 to 96 this year, more than doubling. Also, in 2005 there were 18,805 crimes of which 4,422 (23.9%) were committed in brothels, and this year that figure increased to 5,254 (43.8%), revealing a growing trend of spreading brothels. (Source: Korea Beat.)

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2008

January 2008

U.S. Still Rates S.Korea as Sex Tourism Destination (Jan 2008) The U.S. Congressional Research Service still rates South Korea as a major Asian destination for organized sex tours in a recent report entitled "Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress."

Since the prostitution crackdown laws went into effect on Sept. 23, 2004, Korea says, brothels have been closed down, organized prostitution for foreign tourists has to all intents and purposes eradicated, and ordinary prostitution has been outlawed and drastically reduced. All this is corroborated by objective data. The latest classification by the CRS is therefore a blow for the Korean government, highlighting the need to disseminate accurate information to improve the national image. (SITE NOTE: The red light districts still exist and the prostitutes simply went into the residential neighborhoods. Bars and room salons still abound. What the reporter stated is a bunch of crud.)

In the report issued last week, the CRS lists South Korea as a primary Asian destination for organized sex tours, alongside the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong. By citing Indonesia and Taiwan as secondary destinations for organized sex tours, the report suggests prostitution in South Korea is more serious than in these two countries.

An official with the South Korean Embassy in Washington said, "We're making all-out efforts to present accurate information on Korea to politicians, government officials, academics and experts in the U.S. It is sometimes possible that accurate information on the reality in Korea is not delivered. We'll take a proper countermeasure after finding out the truth first."

(SITE NOTE: The fact is that it exists and everyone knows how prevalent it is -- from the lowest school child in Korea to the geezers prowling the bars. To say it isn't or saying the information is not "accurate" is hogwash.

The following is from a newstory in 2005: The amount of Korean prostitutes invading Japan, Canada, and the US speaks for itself. Destinations for Korean sex workers are no longer limited to developed nations like the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan. Korean police say the number of women working in bars, karaoke clubs and massage parlors in countries frequented by growing numbers of Korean tourists like Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is increasing. Meanwhile in North America the realm of activity of Korean sex workers is spreading from major urban centers like Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto to smaller cities and towns. In February, it emerged that an organization sold 38 women to brothels in Australia, New Zealand and Canada in conditions of virtual bonded labor. Police say the organization would advance the women millions of won they had to pay back at 60 percent interest and forced them to pay medical expenses for diseases contracted on the job. The women had to sign up to a "code of conduct" that fined them US$300 for arguing with customers and US$50 for showing up a minute late to work.

At an international meeting on human traficking in Bangkok, Thailand last October, Kim Yeong-ran of the Naeil Women's Center for Youth said an increasing number of Korean men who go on sex tours abroad was paralleled by a growing number of Korean sex workers going overseas. Police said it appeared that since the Special Law on Prostitution went into effect in September, the number of pimps and prostitutes heading overseas was rapidly increasing. But they have no idea of the exact scale of the problem since most of the women leave the country ostensibly for tourism.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in the U.S. have arrested 27 members of an organization who fixed Korean sex workers up with jobs in San Francisco, and are holding about 100 Korean prostitutes. In Los Angeles, which has a large Korean population, 18 were arrested on charges of smuggling Korean prostitutes into the country and setting them up in safe houses as part of what U.S. prosecutors claim was one of the biggest prostitution busts in history. The nine-month investigation of Korean prostitution rings was codenamed "Operation Gilded Cage." U.S. authorities believe the gangs sold the women to places in Los Angeles, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Las Vegas after smuggling them in through Mexico and Canada, where they served local and Korean clients. Most had worked as prostitutes in Korea and went overseas as domestic anti-prostitution laws started to bite. Federal prosecutors said the gangs were abusing the hopes and dreams of immigrants. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.))

According to the CRS report, U.S. President George W. Bush on Oct. 18, 2007 issued sanctions against North Korea, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela, which the U.S. State Department had categorized, in its own human trafficking report, as Tier 3 countries for failing to address the problem of trafficking for forced labor. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

South Korea Deleted From Sex Tour Destination List (Jan 2008) The United States Congress has deleted South Korea from its list of nations described as favored destinations for sex tourists. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) included Korea in the list of sex tourist nations in its reports on June 20, 2007 and Jan. 10, 2008. After some media criticized the report and South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C. showed documents proving the report incorrect, the research center published a revised one after erasing South Korea from the list on Jan. 17.

In its report, ``Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress,'' the CRS had said that The Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong are ``some of the primary Asian destinations for organized sex tours.'' A crackdown on prostitution took effect in September 2004 and the number of brothels has drastically dropped in Korea. (SITE NOTE: They just moved out of the controlled red light districts into the uncontrolled residential neighborhoods. The tongue in cheek comment on sex in Korea is that the Korean hookers priced themselves out of the market in competition with Thailand and Phillipines.)

The CRS criticized growing sex trafficking, especially in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Europe, Africa, and South America-Caribbean regions, but did not mention cases in North America. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Life Goes On in Uijongbu: Filipina Hookers (Jan 2008) To "Uri," struggling to find a job in her country, a newspaper advertisement that promised her a successful career as a singer in Korea and lucrative income seemed an opportunity that would not knock twice. The 24-year-old Filipina, who only identified herself with her alias, immediately visited an employment agency in Manila in late 2006. There she took a singing test, which was filmed and sent to a Korean agency and the Korean immigration office. Less than two months later, she flew to Korea with an E-6 visa, issued to foreign performing artists. When the Korean agency took Uri to a club near a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, she realized she'd been cheated. Instead of a microphone, there was a pole around which she was supposed to drape herself. But she wasn't only required to dance. Commercial sex was also part of the deal. Uri was one of 45 club workers from the Philippines interviewed by My Sister's Place (Durebang), a civic group for women working in U.S. camptowns. (SITE NOTE: Same story of the "juicy girls" from years ago -- that they were "tricked" into being prostitutes. Same story of the Korean government supposedly shutting off the E-6 entertainment visas, but it still appears to be thriving. Same story of the Korean government talking out of the side of their mouthes as these same Filipinas are also filling the low-end Korean bars as the Russian and Korean hookers migrate to the more expensive room salons. The only worry is that the business in Uijongbu and Dongduchon will be dropping off as the hookers and bars migrate to Camp Humphries in Anjung-ni. Russians were supposedly deported in 2004 because of the influence of the Russian mafia in Korea. However, many of the Russian hookers are still operating as they are "married" to Koreans (basically a pimp arrangement). However, they are seldom seen the GI areas as their is a high demand for white flesh in Korean bars.)

The interviews are included in a survey of camptown women in Pyeongtaek, southern Gyeonggi, that the group published last month. The survey was supported by the provincial government. You Young-nim, director of the group, said previous surveys were carried out at other U.S. camps in Korea. Their research revealed a greater number of human rights violations against foreign women in Pyeongtaek. According to You, this is because of the relocation plans for U.S. camps. The Korean government and U.S. Forces Korea agreed last year to move all U.S. Army camps in the northern Gyeonggi area and Seoul to Pyeongtaek by 2012.

"The planned expansion of U.S. bases in Pyeongtaek is encouraging people to build more clubs there. This is in contrast to the general decline of such clubs in other parts of Gyeonggi," You said. "Unless something is done, the Pyeongtaek clubs will create more serious human rights issues." According to the survey, the Korean government loosened the migration process for foreign entertainers in 1996. Then the Korea Special Tourist Association, comprised of club owners around U.S. military bases, began to bring in women from the Philippines and former Soviet Union countries on E-6 visas.

The number of the migrants on these visas, mostly women, increased from 3,947 in 2004, 5,533 in 2005 and 5,837 in 2006, the survey said. Most of these women are involved in the sex trade, while the number of Korean club workers around U.S. camps has decreased, the survey said. (SITE NOTE: Korean women can make more money in Korean only clubs and fled the US clubs in the 1990s. All that was left were the older women.)

"The sex trade industry in camptowns previously used Korean women called yanggongju, which literally means Western princess. They are now preying on Filipinas," You said in the survey. The other 44 Filipinas featured in the survey, which was conducted in Pyeongtaek from late May to early September in 2007, have had similar experiences to Uri. Russian club workers were not available for interviews, Durebang explained. The interviewees were promised an average salary of $607 a month, six times what they could earn in the Philippines, but none received that much. If they failed to complete their monthly quota ? sales of hundreds of juice drinks priced at around $10 each, and several "bar fines," when a customer pays the club so he can take a worker to a motel -- they had money deducted from their wages.

Some of the women fled because of the forced bar fine. "The club forced me to do it twice a week, even during my period," a former club worker, who uses Mheryl as her alias, was quoted in the survey. "They threatened to send me back to the Philippines." You said government intervention is desperately needed, and she called on the government to support drop-in centers as well as medical and legal aide. But without a fundamental change in government mentality, support at the moment remains a temporary remedy, You said. "The Korean government says the sex trade is illegal, but it turns a blind eye to these foreign female entertainers," You said. "The government should come up with solutions. To that end, close cooperation among intra-government agencies should be established." (SITE NOTE: In 2004, the police promised this action, but it was just mouthwash to coverup the bad smell of their bullsh_t. The Korean government remains a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to the subject of human trafficking -- and the US has now eased off on its focus.) (Source: Joongang Ilbo .)

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November 2009

Philippines takes aim at juicy bar trafficking -- Officials hope tougher immigration rules keep Filipinas from S. Korean prostitution (SITE NOTE: DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATHE. (1) The Philippines is dependent upon the foreign exchange these "workers" send back to the PI to support their families. (2) It is KOREA that controls the E-6 (entertainment) visas that allow these "entertainers" to enter Korea. In other words, it is KOREA that continues to foster the trade. However, there is a move to make the "camp towns" disappear, but it has not been pushed by the USFK. In other words, though the USFK issues strong words about human trafficking and prostitution, they also realize that the "camp towns" exist because the soldiers/airmen love them. For all their drawbacks, the alternatives are far worse: increased sexual assaults on camp/base. This is FACT -- and why the USFK has blacked out information on sexual assaults. The "camp towns" were created for the soldiers by Park Chung-hee that gave special tax breaks to bar owners on the purchase of beer/whiskey. When it started in the 1970s, the government actually praised the prostitutes for the foreign exchange they brought in for the poor Korean economy. However, now the situation is very different. The Miracle of the Han in the 1980s brought prosperity to Korea -- and the Korean prostitutes left the camp towns. The Koreans as a general rule didn't want to work in the low-pay camp towns and moved to the booming Korea bar industry. Without girls, the bar owners in the early 1990s first brought in Russians (actually from the various republics of the former USSR) but it was found that the Russians also brought in the Russian Mafia who set up house throughout Korea. In fact, the old Texas district of Pusan converted to Crylic signs for the new clientelle. Thus in the mid-2000s, the Korean government deported all the Russians -- though many remained in Korea as illegals. This brought about a new dearth of workers for the bar owners so Filipinas were imported to fill the needs. As an "ally" they had none of the problems of getting on base that the former Communist nation girls had. Thus they became more "acceptable" for the USFK, but still we had the touchy issue of prostitution and human trafficking. This is where the USFK got into trouble. It took the moral high ground condemning human trafficking, but the control of the human trafficking was out of its hands (Korean controlled). Instead it could only punish the USFK personnel for prostitution, but again it got personal with bar fines -- and then blanket off-limits for the camp towns. All kinds of problems on base and off-base ensued. Then in about 2009, the USFK backed off slightly on the prosecution of prostitution and the bar owners signed pledges that they would NOT sanction "bar fines." This uneasy truce exists today -- but everyone knows that prostitution continues to thrive in the camp towns.)

Amnesty International files report

The mistreatment of Filipinas employed at juicy bars near U.S. military bases in South Korea has gotten the attention of Amnesty International, the human rights organization. A 98-page report issued Oct. 21, "Disposable Labour: Rights of Migrant Workers in South Korea," says women "recruited as singers (to) the U.S. military camp towns, have been trafficked by their employers and managers, and live in slavery like conditions." "Upon arrival in South Korea, they discover that their job in reality is to serve and solicit drinks from U.S. soldiers, and at some establishments they are forced to have sex with their clients," the report said.

Philippine women would no longer be allowed to work in South Korean "juicy bars" — where prostitution is often a byproduct — if Philippine Embassy officials' efforts to tighten up immigration regulations succeed. Embassy labor attache Delmer Cruz said he hopes that by the first quarter of 2010 women from his country will be prohibited from employment as "hospitality workers … at bars in the vicinity of U.S. bases or near the sea ports."

He hinted in September that changes could be on the way that might affect the juicy bar industry, but in recent days he revealed that "high-level measures" are being discussed and a further crackdown on Filipinas traveling to South Korea is in the offing. He stressed that a number of agencies and officials still have to reach a consensus before any additional steps are taken in that direction. "Our objective is to send only true entertainers and performing artists who work in decent places and provide wholesome entertainment ... in five-star hotels, classy restaurants, cruise ships, amusement and entertainment centers," he said. "We don't really consider the juicy girls as the kinds of entertainers we'd like to send for employment abroad."

In September, Stars and Stripes reported that despite the U.S. military's stated "zero tolerance" policy for human trafficking, prostitution continues to be a problem at many of the juicy bars that cluster by the dozens in seedy entertainment districts near bases across South Korea. The vast majority of those bars employ Filipinas whose primary job is to talk U.S. servicemembers into buying them expensive juice drinks in exchange for their continued company and conversation.

The women are brought here by promoters who essentially rent them out to bars, but only after the Filipinas pass a singing audition and secure an entertainer visa. Many come to South Korea thinking they will be performers, only to find out after they arrive that their primary job is to flirt with soldiers and other customers, and to prostitute themselves when they fail to meet juice-sale quotas. Cruz said previously that it is difficult to determine the extent of prostitution that goes on at the juicy bars, but he added that just the "kissing" and "physical contact" between the Filipinas and customers he has witnessed during undercover visits is unacceptable.

An embassy investigation revealed that so far this year, more than 500 Filipinas had gone through the proper channels to secure entertainer visas in South Korea, including submitting their proposed employment contracts to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for review. However, Cruz said, about 1,800 Filipinas have been granted entertainer visas by the Korea Immigration Service during that same period.

"What does that imply? That these ladies came here through illegal channels," he said, most likely with the help of illegal recruiters who did not want the Filipinas' contracts reviewed. Cruz said that in about 25 percent of the contracts his office does review, performers are destined for one of the bars on the Philippine Embassy's "watch list" of 100 or so "performance venues" where Filipinas have previously been forced into prostitution or encountered other problems. In those cases, the applicants — or their promoters — are directed to secure contracts with other venues.

Prompted by the alarming number of entertainers entering South Korea via illegal means, Philippine Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito D. Roque issued a warning recently that Filipinos "face abuse in South Korea" if they do not go through proper channels in securing their visas. By sending their proposed employment contracts to Philippine authorities, Roque said, "Filipino entertainers … seeking jobs in Korea may also be apprised of Korean employers/promoters and entertainment venues with derogatory records and not suited to employ Filipino workers."

Cruz said the warning has been posted on the embassy's Web site, and will be published in its newsletter, but he conceded it will have little effect until other "policy reforms" now on the drawing board are enacted. He said Roque's warning could be considered the opening salvo in the effort to better regulate where Filipino entertainers end up working in South Korea. "The objective is for the government agencies on our side to have better coordination," Cruz said, "to stop the departure of Filipino entertainers who resort to illegal channels and end up exploited or abused in such places."

He pointed out that the Philippines has in recent years barred its people from leaving the country to take jobs in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Nigeria, due to concerns about security or working conditions. In the case of Iraq, the Philippines went as far as stamping all passports "Not valid for travel to Iraq."

However, according to various news reports, a significant number of Filipinos in search of better pay and benefits than what is available in their home country have still managed to get around the travel bans. They go through third-party countries; use older, unstamped passports; or are recruited by "escort services" that pay off Philippine airport and immigration officials to get them out of the country. Cruz said the responsibility for seeing to it that Filipinas do not fall victim to the juicy bar industry rests primarily with the Philippines, not the governments of South Korea or the United States.

"As a sending country, we can actually choose what kind of workers work in what kind of place," he said. "The burden is more on our side." U.S. military officials have said they are vigilant in monitoring potential illegal activities at base-area juicy bars, but will only place off-limits those found in violation of prostitution and human-trafficking regulations. U.S. Forces Korea has placed about 50 such bars on its list of establishments where servicemembers are not allowed, but has stopped short of imposing a blanket off-limits order on all juicy bars.

Cruz said Philippine officials are still considering sharing their "watch list" with the U.S. military, in hopes that as many as 20 additional juicy bars will be put off-limits. While the juicy girls' suggestive physical contact may be objectionable to Philippine officials, Cruz said it is not illegal and that he understands why the U.S. military will only bar its servicemembers from establishments caught in the more-serious acts of prostitution or human trafficking. "The U.S. military sees things from its own point of view," he said. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

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Opinion of USFK Anti-Prostitution Campaign SEE American Off-base Bar Culture: Opinion of Anti-Prostitution Campaign .

Opinion on USFK Human Trafficking Campaign SEE American Off-base Bar Culture: Opinion on Human Trafficking Campaign .

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MAPS

Map of North and South Korea


Map of Korea (Expressways)


Pyeongtaek-Songtan-Anjung


Songtan Greater Area


Songtan Road Map


Road Map of Songtan area


Map of Osan AB


Map of Osan AB Flightline (NOTE: The Diamond A-D where the nuclear alerts were pulled.)


Map of Songtan Middle School (2001)
Daughter attended (2004-2005) and our apartment is at Kunyong Apartments on top right. On left is the Songtan Branch Office of Pyongtaek City Hall.


Map of Shinjang Shopping Mall (2000)


Map of Shinjang Shopping Mall (2000)

LINKS TO LOCAL AREA:

• Pyongtaek (Beetle) -- (Hangul) Exceptional 3D type maps of cities of Korea -- including Pyeongtaek under Kyonggi-do.

• Pyongtaek Map

• Pyongtaek

• Pyongtaek Map

• Welcome to Pyongtaek City Pyongtaek-shi contains: Paengseong-eup Anjung-eup Jinwi-myeon Seotan-myeon Godeok-myeon Oseong-myeon Cheongbuk-myeon Poseung-myeon Hyeondeok-myeon Jungang-dong Seojeong-dong Songtan-dong Jisan-dong Songbuk-dong Sinjang 1(il)-dong Sinjang 2(i)-dong Sinpyeong-dong Wonpyeong-dong Tongbok-dong Bijeon 1(il)-dong Bijeon 2(i)-dong Segyo-dong (NOTE: Ichong-dong missing from this list)
  
  
• Songtan Map -- Topographical map includes geographic data

• Koram Sahwe -- By far the most impressive resource for finding the location of EVERY Shop on Shinjang Mall. To the right is a table of contents by category, from ceramics to vehicles -- from insurance to bars. It is on this resource. By clicking on the name of the establishment, the site will find the location on a map. We found it by accident and recommend others who see this site, spread this link to others stationed at Osan AB. It is invaluable as a comprehensive locator of services or goods. We have not seen any other source as comprehensive as this. (Koram Sahwe home page is commercial with selected advertising, but the "MAP" is a VERY useful resource.) (NOTE: "MAP" is very slow in loading.)

• Osan City Hall

• Songtan Fire Station

• City population: Korea

• Pyongtaek City: General Info

• Diaspora (hangul) -- Chart of local doctors and hospitals in English.

• Songtan Elementary School -- Founded as a branch school on 1 Nov 1945 named Seojeong-ni Childrens School. On 1 Sep 1947 and had three classrooms. On 30 Jun 1949, compulsory universal education for elementary school became law. On 1 Jul 1949, there were 6 grades in the school. On 30 Sep 1949, it received a female principal. Most certainly after the North invaded classes ceased until the war stabilized on the DMZ. Most likely reopened in 1952 though not stated as such. On 1 March 1996, it was renamed Songtan Elementary School. (Kajae-dong, Pyongtaek City in the vicinity of the Seojeong Train Station.)

• Songshin Elementary School founded on 1 Mar 1963
• Songbuk Elementary School --- Founded in 1955.
• Hyo-myung Middle School -- Founded circa 1953

• Taegwang Middle School founded in 1964
• Songtan Girls' Middle School -- Founded circa 1980

• Songtan Girls' High School -- Located in Jisan-5 dong, Pyongtaek City. Founded on 10 Apr 1984.

• Songtan Middle School -- This is the school my daughter attended (2004-2005) when we first moved to Songtan. Founded 15 Jul 1994. Located at 1195 Jisan-dong, Pyeongtaek City.

• Kumbang Middle School -- Founded circa 1990

• Eunhae Middle School -- Founded circa 1984

• Taegwang High School Founded in 1969.
• Hyomyung High School founded in 1956.
• Songtan High School -- Located in Ichong-dong, Pyongtaek City. Founded on 1 Nov 1999 with 12 classrooms for three grades.

• Kyungmoon College (Seojeong College) -- Community College opened 1983; Dept of Business Mgt; Dept Social Welfare; Hotel Management; Food preparation; Vet care. Located near the Songtan Branch of City Hall in Seojeong-dong
  
  
  
  Seojeong College

• Songtan Seogwang Church (Onnori Church)

• Songtan Central Baptist Church

• Naver.com Search Engine

• Daum.net Search Engine

• Gyeonggi-do: Practical Guide for Foreigners -- Practical information on almost all topics for a foreigner living on the economy (Highly recommended reading for foreigners)

OSAN AB LINKS

• Osan AB: Retired Activities Office: Jack Terwiel -- I can not say enough good words about this one-man show. The information on the RAO site is too much to assimilate at one sitting and so indepth that it is phenomenal. This is the ultimate resource for Osan AB.

• Osan AB: Retired Activities Office (Newsletter)

• Osan AB: AFKN Emergency Evacuation Frequencies

• Relocation Net: Seoul (Useful Info) -- Base Operator: DSN 315-784-4110 // 011-82-333-661-1110 // Telephone Access................ : Commercial 011-82-333-66l-XXXX(prefix 784) 011-82-333-660-XXXX(prefix 783) To contact Songtan from Osan AB, dial "99" plus the six plus the the local number. Also, to reach Osan AB from other cities in Korea dial 0333-661 (784 prefixes) or 0333-660 (783 prefixes). To call Osan AB from a commercial phone in the US dial 011-82-333-660 or 661-XXXX.

• American Forces Spouses Club, Seoul: Shinjang Mall: Shopping Bag Lady -- Excellent synopsis of shops on mall

• -- Free classified ads for USFK members selling items

BLOG LINKS

• GI in Korea

• Marmot's hole blog

• The Lost Nomad blog

• Anglertown: Fishing in Korea Lakes, ponds, streams near Songtan/Pyongtaek for fishing for bass

• Flying Yangban blog

• Songtan After Dark yahoo user group

• Songtan (Osan AB) chat and info msn user group

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