Andrew Farrell pays a visit to the darker side of South Korea, a haven for hookers, love motels - and US soldiers
‘Hi, can we have a room for the night please?” we asked in broken, but understandable Korean. The old woman, pleasant and courteous, deliberated on the question for a few seconds before declining. She was standing two feet shorter than the smallest of three western men at the reception desk in her dingy little motel in Itaewon, at close to 10pm on a Saturday.
Those familiar with that name will know exactly what I am talking about. This motel was based on a street comically renamed ‘Hooker Hill’, which runs parallel with the main street in this most un-Korean of suburbs. The ‘Hill’ has a very steep incline, like a street in Valparaiso bounding towards the Pacific Ocean. As you make the treacherous climb, you’re serenaded by prostitutes on the left, and overshadowed by seriously creepy motels on the right.
The women stand outside one-storey shacks, and most have a bar and a bed. Setting out your ‘I’m not interested’ stall will see the prostitutes leave your side instantly. They won’t even share another word, and will return to the entrance of their bar without batting an eyelid in your direction again. It can be good fun. Moments later another foreign man will make the trip, and you’ll be just another forgotten figure in the Seoul underworld.
But back to the hotel. We sensed the old lady was not completely throwing us out, and this proved correct after debating with each other openly if this was maybe an anti-western thing (it does happen), or that she was only interested in providing rooms for the common local industry that three white men rocking up together were unlikely to indulge in. We figured this shouldn’t make any difference.
She told us to return later in the night, as a room would become available after 1am – ever heard that before? It turns out most rooms become available then because that’s when the subway system closes.
Prostitution is technically illegal in Korea, but it did, astonishingly, account for 1.6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (or about $13bn) in 2007. There has been a notable crackdown on the industry since 2002, when the prostitution trade reaped in $24bn for the local economy. At one point, it is said that prostitution was more lucrative than the whole agricultural sector. There are currently over a quarter of a million prostitutes working in Korea.
Of course it’s obvious that not enough is being done to completely eradicate the trade. After all, how many countries, given the modern global difficulties, would extinguish an industry worth so much to their national coffers? Porn cards are dispersed freely, and that night in Itaewon, as we left our motel, a police car rolled slowly down ‘Hooker Hill’ with lights flashing, but the prostitutes never made a run for cover.
The Yongsan Garrison is also located nearby, meaning Itaewon is the favoured – and reportedly the only – haunt for the majority of the 37,000 US servicemen and women living in this country. Reports of nasty incidents involving US soldiers elsewhere in the capital have apparently led to a restriction on where they are allowed to party, and so Itaewon is the only place.
No one is quite sure what the ramifications will be for this odd central location when the US base moves, as expected, to Pyeongtaek in 2015. The Ethiopian bar will continue to stand beside the Russian nightclub, with the Greek restaurant and traditional Irish bar only a matter of yards away. But the host of small Korean bars, and the prostitution shacks, might suffer a decline in trade. But no one here is thinking about that tonight, or any night for that matter. Welcome to Itaewon.
Andrew Farrell worked as an English language teacher in Korea.
