Asian women involved in prostitution at NK deluxe hotels

[unreal.livejournal.com]

In the seemingly destitute lands of North Korea, Southeast Asian women have been involved in prostitution in deluxe hotel clubs in Pyongyang, the Seoul-based shortwave Open Radio for North Korea reported Saturday.

The broadcaster said that foreign women, especially those from Southeast Asian countries, are employed, instead of local women, to host and entertain the guests at basement bars of hotels.

“There are no officially registered adult entertainment establishments in North Korea. However, there are private establishments from luxury hotels with legal approval from the government,” an unnamed official of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted as telling the radio station. Women from China, the Philippines, Myanmar and Laos along with North Korean women have been residing in these establishments, said the official.


According to the official, this prostitution business began with the construction of the Koryo Hotel in 1985. He also added that sector 5 of the ruling party is in charge of the selection of women. Sector 5 also drafts women who professionally served Kim Jong-il.

International businessmen and visitors would make North Korean women pregnant, resulting in an increasing number of mixed children. Orphanages would take in the children at an early age, and the mothers marked as social outcasts. These children are called “Ainok-jok” or “Honhyeol-jok” which means a child born between parents with different races, the report said.

To solve the rising numbers of the multi-cultural population in North Korea, the government started hiring more Chinese and Southeast Asian women. They are paid $200 to $500 a night and the money includes the stripping in front of foreign guests, it said.

“The government invites those who have invested large amounts of money in North Korea to these bars as a show of gratitude and in order to continue the relationship,” said another insider.

Source: koreatimes

Comments

[chewmi.livejournal.com]

International businessmen and visitors would make North Korean women pregnant...

smh all of this is just sad :/

[honeyfunnybunny.livejournal.com]

resulting in an increasing number of mixed children. Orphanages would take in the children at an early age, and the mothers marked as social outcasts. this is so sad, i don't even know what to say.

:(

[kerynr.livejournal.com]

:( So sad.

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

Agreed. There isn't enough out there and lj is a great forum for discussion. It's a little disheartening that more people don't join in on these kinds of posts.

[miryoku.livejournal.com]

Yah, I appreciate articles like this too. I was actually surprised when I saw that this was posted in omona instead of ontd_political.

[neumi.livejournal.com]

It's the worlds oldest business. Not really surprising, just sad.

[pandaeyes501.livejournal.com]

Disgusted.

[lilipute.livejournal.com]

There's so much fucked up shit in this world

[beatification.livejournal.com]

Now that they "solved the problem of mixed children", what happens to the children born to these foreign women in NK?

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

how is it that these women can lack sense of dignity in such a way? you can argue that they "have no other way," or that they are emotionally beaten into accepting such a fate, but it feels so unrealistic to me @_@ i would rather die from hunger at home, all the while retaining my pride, than to die of some STD or smth while selling my body abroad. just my thought.

[aloakley.livejournal.com]

be glad you've never been in this situation then

[orenji13.livejournal.com]

THIS...

[fizzzzzzzzzzz.livejournal.com]

'Lack of diginity'? That's a bit harsh, dont you think? You dont know what circumstances forced these women (and children too) into sex work/trade.

'Unrealistic'? Sure, its easy to say that you would 'hypothetically' never ever be forced into prostitution, but unless ur an escaped prostitution

Just be thankful that your circumstances do not force you to ever consider selling your body or that you are ever forced into.

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry, reading over it, i do see my comment is really naive. and it's mostly because i haven't been put up with a similar situation. it's just not something i could even fathom. =/ if there's one thing i do recognize, though, it's that gaining a profit from having women put themselves out like that is truly shameful. whoever the men are behind this, i don't see how they can even bear to live with themselves, knowing they are upholding the prostitution business. ah, and i know it may be frustrating for you to see disagreeable comments, but not everyone's mind works the same way and expresses the same thought, js. i just happened to type what was running through my mind while reading the article. mulling it over after, i can see how these women end up where they do. my apologies for any offense.

[ssamina.livejournal.com]

it's not the fact that people have different opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinions but posting a thought online is allowing it be criticized and/or commented on by other people who share the opinion and by people who do not. I do not believe any other people were were put up with a similar situation. Honestly, your comment just really showed ignorance. This isn't to discourage you to post comments but to make you more aware.

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

but people who choose to criticize need to remember that not everyone has such a progressed and well-rounded view on the world as they do, because not everyone receives the same educational opportunities or has the same amount of time to make themselves aware of particular issues. i can't say i have studied much on human trafficking, and i have just recently started learning in-depth about women's rights. i still have college ahead of me, and i do hope to focus more attention on world problems. then i'll do better to bring some worthwhile comments. D; i just don't want people accusing me of being on a high horse and whatnot. because i really am not trying to be.

[beatification.livejournal.com]

I know where you are coming from and I'm not attacking you in any way, but I just want to say that it has less to do with being well versed in human trafficking than being open minded and careful about not jumping into conclusions quickly.

cba to proofread this. sorry for any mistakes~

[girl-vsmachine.livejournal.com]

For the North Korean women, they honestly probably don't have much of a choice. Especially if they're from a poorer area where the kids are taught "The Great Leader provides us a place to learn, food to eat, fight for him". So to sit and demean them is just plain ignorant. From an individual I know with connections to NK has said that during worse times when there wasn't enough food and they were starving to death, parents would kill their own child. Either out of mercy, or cannibalism. Now if a parent is willing to kill their OWN child simply to survive, it's fairly logical to say they'd also be willing to sell their own body.

The foreign girls, who knows how they ended up there but it could very well be that they're being held against their will. Get bribed to go for something else, forced to stay. In a country with such little information coming in and going out, it would be extremely hard to even attempt to call for help or let anyone know shes in that situation if the girl even has family to begin with.

Both Myanmar and Laos, afaik aren't very well off countries to begin with. Myanmar went through some pretty intense warfare in the 70-80's, forced labour of a lot of citizens up until the 90's, a huge typhoon hit the area in 2008. I know very little about Laos and wont pretend to. These women could easily be convinced to go to NK, or just simply kidnapped.

At the end of the day though, most of these women do not have the luxuries nor choices on how to live their life.

Re: cba to proofread this. sorry for any mistakes~

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

that makes things a lot clearer, thank you for the elaboration.

[girl-vsmachine.livejournal.com]

Because this is North Korea you're talking about and not some 1st world country.

seconding the i cant even with this comment.

[girlknees.livejournal.com]

it feels unrealistic to you because you've never experienced it, which is fine but it's quite shocking that you can't imagine the hardships these women might have face before taking such a job, and that you can't empathize with them.
you say they lack a sense of dignity and that you would rather die than do something like this yourself - but what if it was your for example your family that was starving? wouldn't you sacrifice your dignity then?

[ssamina.livejournal.com]

I do not know how aware you are of human trafficking but it's huge in SE Asia as well as other parts of the world. The article doesn't say whether or not the women are victims of human trafficking but that was my first thought. I have never been in this position and thankfully I do not think I will ever be. Hopefully in a better world the mindset of degrading these women will be changed into trying to help these women instead. just my thought.

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

if you read a comment or two above.... .__.ll

[o13blackcats.livejournal.com]

Wow, victim blaming much? Real nice, asshole.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

Ok, I am sorry, but I don't think the women are to blame here.

[jela-ow.livejournal.com]

I guess it's unrealistic to you because you don't live in an environment where people live in utter poverty and there really are little to no job opportunities for them. If you'd rather die in hunger then okay, but I don't think you should quickly pass judgement on people in this situation as having no dignity or pride. Some of them probably didn't know that they would end up prositituting themselves when they applied for the job. There could be some people who willingly choose this kind of profession but honestly, it's their life. It doesn't make them the lowest of the low. I'd like to think that there's some pride in actually doing something to better your life instead of waiting for your death.

[chraka.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you're being dumb or naive

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

International businessmen and visitors would make North Korean women pregnant, resulting in an increasing number of mixed children. Orphanages would take in the children at an early age, and the mothers marked as social outcasts.

Yes, that's right, force women into prostitution, then shame and ostracize them for something THAT ISN'T WANT THEY WANTED ANYWAYS. Totally logical and not at all ridiculous.

>:|

HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO ACTUALLY SEE WHAT THEY'RE DOING AND HOW IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT?! GRAAAAA!

[orenji13.livejournal.com]

I am really concern with the mixed race kids.

We know how they treated in SK, and I just imagine it to be 10x worse in NK. For most, I just hope the womans had access to birth control :(((

[taeminho-onkey.livejournal.com]

I always thought they people liked mixed children in SK... Could you please fill me in on something that I missed?

[eigna-fluff.livejournal.com]

am I missing something? aren't the moon babies like the greatest thing that happened to SK?

[porandojin.livejournal.com]

it's very recent thing about such kids/and imported from japan where this fascination started much earlier/ but koreans basically are crazy about race purity ... mixed children used to go to orphanages directly

[chraka.livejournal.com]

;_; listen to the song black happiness by tasha
cried buckets

[oonalala.livejournal.com]

So the government isn't just looking the other way on this... they are actively recruiting and selecting prostitutes?!?!? They also select women to "professionally serve" Kim Jong-il? Does he get to have sex with North Korean women or is he using the professional services of these foreigners?

So what happens if one of these women wants to leave? I'm sure that goes over well with the government agents.

I know it happens a lot, but the idea that there are all these men of power who have such utter disregard for women makes me ill. These men see women only as objects to be used for either pleasure or reproduction and not as human beings worthy of respect and consideration.

[ncoleey.livejournal.com]

it just makes me feel disappointed in NK actions. the previous bodyguard post was alrdy...

it's not the women that are at fault. the damn sec 5 and the men.. sick!

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

Ugh, human trafficking needs to end but knowing humanity, I don't think it ever will.
Slavery was abolished hundreds of years ago but it is more prevalent now, than it ever was and I think it's partly because we've all let our guard down.

I don't know what it is about femininity that causes men to want to constrain women so much but, you rarely see these things happening the other way round. Maybe because we are made to seem like the 'weaker vessel', idk.

Although prostitution is the oldest running profession and this is nothing new, North Korea really does have their priorities mixed up. Shouldn't they be focusing on the country's demise as opposed to impregnating foreign women?

Ugh, there's so much more I want to say...
It's a shame there aren't more omonaians here

[canttakeabreath.livejournal.com]

two easy reasons i can think of for people not commenting:

1. nothing to say. really. this is sad, but there's absolutely nothing i can add to the discussion. i have no particular insights, just a bit of rage that the UN cares more about fucking around in oil-rich areas rather than dealing with crises like in NK, burma, etc. it's horrific. and we live in that world.

2. people subscribe to tags more and more. so they miss stuff like this.

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

Ugh, it makes me sick when people sit there and legit complain about their first world countries and all these organisations are no better. All priority is given to the privileged, the majority of who were born into it.
Let me not rant though.

Also, the ting about tags is that they are only good in theory. If you rely on them, it's easy to miss out on what makes omona a community.
Granted I haven't been a member for very long so I could just be talking rubbish, lol.

[yvonne-b.livejournal.com]

FUUUUUU

this kinda shit makes me so mad