Korea’s Sex Trade: A Short History

Borderless takes you deep into Seoul’s major red light districts to show you the history of Korea’s massive sex trade. This is part 2. Part one is here: In this latest in the series, Borderless News Online goes to some of Seoul’s best known red light districts to uncover the history of Korea’s sex industry – which goes back at least to the time of Japanese occupation. Borderless talks to sex workers, pimps mamasans — older female brothel managers — and others in this underworld that is on the one hand secret but on the other hand widespread in Korea. Korea’s massive sex industry – one of Asia’s biggest – has been around for at least over a century, and some in the industry say it’s growing.