However, the Korea Women's Development Institute suggested that from 514,000 to 1.2 million Korean women participate in the prostitution industry. In 2003, the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality announced that 260,000 women-1 of 25 of young Korean women-may be engaged in the sex industry. In 2005, Filipina and Russian women became common in many Korean red district and even accounted for 90 percent of all the prostitutes in U.S. Human traffickers not only brought Russian prostitutes for American and Korean soldiers but also brought in many Russian women through sham marriages with South Korean men. Since the mid-1990s, foreigners make up 80–85% of the women working at clubs near military bases. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, thousands of Russian migrated to Korea to work as sex entertainers in Korean red light districts while thousand others forced were into prostitution for both American soldiers and Korean civilian men and soldiers. South Korean sex workers have become less numerous as Filipino and Russian women were a cheaper labor alternative. Since 2004, the majority of prostitutes have been Philippine or Russian women. Korean government(보건사회복지부) figures give 10,000-30,000 prostitutes servicing the U.N/U.S. Surveys carried out the 1950s and 1960s suggest 60% of these prostitutes worked near U.S. This number is according to the research on the number of checkup for Venereal diseases from 1953 to 1969 by professor Lee Young-hoon an economic professor at Seoul National University. The number of South Korean prostitutes who worked as sex providers for American soldiers and Korean soldiers was between 26,000 and 39,000.
Since the early 2000's most prostitutes were Filipina and Russian. In the beginning most prostitutes were South Korean with minority of other women from Europe and Asia. Prostitutions are visited by American soldiers, Korean soldiers and Korean civilians. Though US officials publicly condemn prostitution, they are perceived as taking little action to prevent it, and some locals suggest that US Army authorities prefer having commercial sex services available to soldiers. This government involvement was in the past motivated in part by fears that the American military, which protected South Korea from North Korea, would leave. The US military police provided for the security in these US camp town prostitution sites, and detained the prostitutes who were thought to be ill, to prevent epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases. The government registered the prostitutes, who were called Western princesses, and required them to carry medical certification. This was the result of negotiation between the Korean government and the US military, involving prostitution for United States soldiers in camp towns surrounding the US military bases. militaryįrom the 1960s until today US camp town prostitution has existed outside US military bases (for example outside Camp Casey and Camp Stanley). Main article: Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S.