Activist alleges Korea’s sex shame

A Filipina activist at an international seminar on women’s rights held in Seoul alleged that Korean men are outpacing the Japanese in taking sex tours to her country. Dolores Alforte, executive director of the Philippine branch of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, urged the South Korean government and the country’s citizens to help protect Filipino minors from becoming victims of Koreans’ overseas sex tours.
Ms. Alforte was speaking at the International Symposium on Conditions and Countermeasures of Overseas Child and Youth Sex Tourism by Korean Males, hosted by the Naeil Woman’s Center for Youth. She said crimes associated with sex tourism to her country were once committed mostly by Japanese males, but are now more prevalent among Korean men.
Ms. Alforte also revealed a series of incidents in which South Korean men in the Philippines were investigated on charges of sexual abuse. A South Korean doctor was indicted in Cebu in June 2003 after having sexual relationships with six girls who were under 15 years of age, she said.
Six Korean marriage brokers were arrested in January after their Korean clients had sexual affairs with mutiple Filipina women before marrying a different Filipina.
Some Koreans were also bribing police to evade charges of sexual assault, encouraging corruption, Ms. Alforte said.
Kim Kyung-ai, a professor at Dongduk Women’s University and head of the Naeil Woman’s Center for Youth, said, “I have felt embarrassed because Asian representatives have been criticizing Korean men’s sex tourism at recent international meetings.”
At the event, three tourism agencies, including Masada Tours, signed agreements that they will not arrange any sex tourism programs.

by Moon Kyung-ran