An investigative report on the old capital of the red light districts
By Narang
Published: April 6, 2017
Translated by Jooyea Lee
A redevelopment project is under way in Cheongnyangni’s old red light
district, a.k.a. Cheongnyangni 588.
The construction project in this old neighborhood of Dongdaemun has renamed the district “Cheongnyangni District 4”. Soon, four 65-story residential
& commercial complexes, as well as the 42-story Landmark Tower building,
will occupy the area.
For decades, there were only rumors of
redevelopment, until last July when the project was fast-tracked. One by one,
brothel owners shut down their businesses and sex workers had to move out of
the area. Demolition has already kicked off in part of the neighborhood.
 |
A redevelopment project has already kicked
off in Cheongnyangni 588,
the old capital of the red light districts. ⓒIlda
|
We visited Cheongnyangni 588 last March. The shop windows were broken, and
many properties were sprayed with red X-marks. The area looks abandoned.
“Prostitution is illegal” signs are everywhere. In the few brothels that
have managed to stay open, the lights are on but only empty chairs fill the
voids. Not a soul can be found inside what used to be the capital of Korea’s red
light districts, where busy lights shone well into the night.
Nonetheless, not everyone is gone. There are still those who remain in this
desolate place.
Sujung: “All I want is to work here until the
shop closes down. Please let me.”
Around ten at night, I join the activists
of e-loom, an anti-prostitution
human rights group. They have been counseling sex workers since 2004. In order
to respond to the recent developments, e-loom
joined forces with the following organizations: A Coalition for a Solution to
Prostitution, Boda (a
women’s human rights group), and the counseling group Dasi. Together, they are responding to the issues arising from Cheongnyangni’s
redevelopment.
When e-loom conducted a fact-finding mission in the Cheongnyangni sex
shop cluster (hereafter just “cluster”) in 2013, around 400 women were working
in the district, at various establishments popularly known as ‘glass rooms,'
jjok-bang (tiny cells), inns, ‘tearooms,' etc. These days, there are hardly
any lights on in those shops.
Four Japanese men, perhaps in their 20s,
wander around in front of the glass rooms for a good while. According to e-loom activists, the majority of
visitors during the last few years have been tourists from China and Japan or
migrant workers from Southeast Asia.
E-loom activists knocked on the door of one of the shops that were still open.
They brought multi-vitamins for the sex workers. One activist calls out, “Onni,
where are you?” A group of women, dressed up to work the night, come out from
the glass room.
“Men are standing in front of the shop. We
turned the lights off to drive them away. Because of them, we had no customers
yesterday. Again.”
 |
Not everyone is gone. There are still
those who remain in this desolate place — sex shop workers. ⓒIlda
|
We return a few days later, during the day
this time. We met Sujung
(pseudonym, 39 years old) who eats, sleeps and works in a glass room business. Sujung’s only wish is to be able to
work here safely, just until the day shop closes down. The shop’s owner and the
redevelopment team couldn’t reach a suitable agreement for compensation for
closing his shop, which is why it is still in operation.
Not far from Sujung’s workplace, bulldozers are tearing down buildings. The
air is too smoky to breathe. Sujung
says the construction noises keep her from sleeping during the day.
“I barely get by these days,” she remarks. She started working at
brothels when she was 21 years old. After going through other clusters, tearooms,
and the motel-bari in the Sillim
area, Sujung finally
settled in Cheongnyangni in
2008 and has been here ever since. She thinks the working conditions in Cheongnyangni are better than
other districts.
“The girls here have been here for five
years at least, or even ten years, like me. They’re used to the working
conditions here, and because of that, they won’t go elsewhere. The rules in Cheongnyangni are ‘freer,' compared
to other places. Sooner or later, Cheongnyangni
588 will be gone anyway. That’s why women here have more freedom, whereas the
rules are stricter in other areas. Every month, you only get a few days off.
And if you’re late for work, you’ll get fined. Those are just a few examples.
Also, the way they split the profit, it’s 50:50 at other places. Here, it's
more like 60:40. Plus, there’s also kkalse, an alternative to splitting profits.”
In the kkalse system, sex workers
pay a set “rent” of 4 million or 5 million won [3,500-4,350 USD] to shop owners,
instead of splitting profits with them. Sex workers operate more like
independent contractors, which lets shop owners maintain the appearance of
running a legitimate business. Some workers think that they have to pay more
under kkalse, or that there’s virtually no difference between it and profit-sharing. Nonetheless, Sujung seems to think that kkalse
allows more autonomy.
“Because of this, I am trying to stay here
for as long as I can. I know I have to leave in the end, but still...”
 |
With nowhere to go, Sujung says she will stay here for as
long as she can. ⓒIlda
|
Former shop owners, now ‘redevelopment
uncles’: “Prostitution is illegal”
For the last three weeks, Sujung has had no customers, because
the redevelopment committee constantly stops customers from seeking her services. The redevelopment
committee members include former shop owners who used to run brothels in Cheongnyangni 588.
As redevelopment kicked off, shop owners
split into two groups: the redevelopment committee vs. the ‘National Alliance
of Squatters and Evictees Cheongnyangni emergency response committee’
(hereafter “response committee”). Those who owned or rented buildings joined
the former; those who received little compensation for giving up their business
or ran a business at sublet buildings joined the latter.
Some owners took on the task of mitigating
conflicts related to compensation, on the side of the redevelopment committee.
They are called ‘redevelopment uncles.' Redevelopment uncles tell the sex
workers, “There is no compensation for you because your work is illegal.” They have
even installed CCTV cameras for ‘security purposes,’ but they’re really a
pretext for threatening the sex workers. The uncles say, “If you keep working,
we’ll report you to the police.”
Sex workers feel exploited. Shop owners
used to profit off of their labor, and are now turning against them. They were once
neck-deep in this illegal trade
themselves, ‘selling’ the women, and now threaten them by saying
"prostitution is illegal"? What a ridiculous farce, to say the least.
“The redevelopment committee reported us
to the police when buyers (customers) came. At times, some of these men weren’t
even customers, but if there were any men in sight, they’d immediately go to
the police. Every single time. The police started getting irritated too, and
told them to stop ‘wrongly notifying’ the police. So now, instead of going to
the police, the uncles take turns keeping watch over us. Customers can’t visit
us anymore. If buyers approach, they say, ‘We’re calling the police on you, for
illegal prostitution’. No conversation can take place whatsoever.”
According to e-loom activists, the redevelopment committee’s police report
led to police investigations of two sex workers. One of them was indicted and
even went through prosecutory investigation. The buyers in the cases were
tourists from China and Taiwan, and so fled the country the next day. The
current system punishes only women.
 |
| Former shop owners, now ‘redevelopment uncles’ threaten their past employees. ⓒIlda |
Sex workers who are exploited in
redevelopment conflicts
As women rose up against the actions of
former shop owners and ‘uncles,' their interests seemed to coincide with those
of the response committee at times. However, the women mostly tend to be
exploited in disputes between the redevelopment committee and the response
committee. The response committee members are not exactly on the women's side
either.
“Redevelopment took off, and many shops
closed down. There was a surplus of sex workers. Now, there’s competition
amongst these women. Which is why the remained owners raised the kkalse fee. Their logic is, ‘Can’t pay
up? Get out.’ Shop owners mobilized against the women. At the same time, they
enlisted sex workers in their fight. They’ll say to the women, ‘When the
demolition team comes in, use your bodies to stop them.’ The remaining shop
owners are saying they stay open ‘for the girls’. But the truth is, it's just
more useful for them to say, 'If we leave, these women have nowhere to go’ than,
‘I won’t leave.’” —Byul, e-loom activist
Initially, Sujung used to join the shop owners at protests.
“I used to go to the protests organized by
the response committee. All the time. But then, nothing changed. I felt that
the redevelopment committee came down on us even harder because of these
protests. The number of police reports increased even more.”
All the 400 women - where are they?
In 2015, the Ministry of Gender Equality
and Family sent out a directive called ‘Roadmap to prostitution cluster
shutdown' to spur local governments to come up with solutions appropriate for
their own communities. To that end, each local government organized a task
force team dedicated to closing down the clusters. The ministry requested that
local governments conduct a joint fact-finding mission and prepare support
measures for women who leave the clusters.
For the Cheongnyangni cluster, however, no task force was organized by Dongdaemun District, to which Cheongnyangni belongs. What’s more, neither
the city of Seoul nor Dongdaemun
prepared a proposal to support the women.
The women ousted from the Cheongnyangni cluster rarely leave
their profession. Sujung says,
“Many of the women I knew from here now work at glass rooms in the Yeongdeungpo or Chunho clusters.” In many other
cases, sex workers who followed their bosses are now in the Dongducheon area, where they continue
their trade, according to e-loom.
The sex workers either move to different
clusters or involve themselves in other types of sex trade. If the women don’t
have debts or happen to have a residence of their own, they can leave the
clusters and start part-timing as officetel sex workers or karaoke room ‘helpers’. If
they have debts, however, they have no choice but to stay in the clusters.
 |
| If clusters are closed without a support system for the sex workers, it doesn’t end prostitution; it only expands poverty. Ⓒ Ilda |
Some women manage to receive a stipend
that can help get them out of the clusters, as part of the redevelopment process.
Some receive around one million won, and some receive nothing. Those who worked
in jjok-bang for a long time with an official
jjok-bang address can move into
stipend housing, provided by the Korea Land & Housing Corporation.
Such cases are extremely limited, however. Only those who were residing in Cheongnyangni District 4 before 1996,
the year when the district was announced as an Urban Redevelopment District,
can receive legal compensation. Husbands refusing to divorce them, their
registered address being elsewhere, or other circumstances prevent women from
receiving compensation.
E-loom activists are especially concerned about the livelihood of the jjok-bang sex workers, who are mostly in
their sixties or older. If they stop working now, most of them won’t be able to
support themselves because of their deteriorating health.
“If these women leave Cheongnyangni,
they're left with the worst kinds of sex labor. The most frequent question we
get is how they can receive basic living subsidies from the government. They
are extremely vulnerable, but they are not qualified for government subsidies
because they have children or happen to have some type of private insurance.
These women have lived their entire lives without the benefit of any social
welfare whatsoever. To have an accurate understanding of their vulnerability,
we have to take the nature of sex work into consideration.” —Byul, e-loom activist—
Sujung says that about 15 women are still working in glass rooms in Cheongnyangni 588. E-loom activists say five women are
working in jjok-bang. Altogether,
they make up the twenty women left in Cheongnyangni,
where demolition has already begun.
A few months from now, Cheongnyangni 588 will disappear
into history. If we shut down sex shop districts in this manner, can we
eradicate the sex trade? Cheongnyangni
588’s redevelopment only reveals the painful reality that, without an adequate
support system for sex workers, shutting down the clusters only aggravates
poverty and discrimination for these women.
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