South Korea: A Thriving Sex Industry In A Powerful, Wealthy Super-State

South Korea, a wealthy, powerful Asian super-state, technology hub and stalwart U.S. ally, has a deep, dark secret. Prostitution and the sex trade flourish in South Korea just under the country’s shiny surface.

Despite its illegality, prostitution and the sex trade is so huge that the government once admitted it accounts for as much as 4 percent of South Korea’s annual Gross Domestic Product -- about the size of the fishing and agriculture industries combined.

Indeed, paid sex is available all over South Korea – in coffee shops, motels, hotels, shopping malls, the barber shop, as well as the so-called juicy bars frequented by American soldiers and the red-light districts which operate openly.

Internet chat rooms and cell phones have opened up whole new streams of business for ambitious prostitutes and pimps.

Read more at International Business Times: http://www.ibtimes.com/south-korea-thriving-sex-industry-powerful-wealthy-super-state-1222647