Guns and condoms (Wizbang)

Some interesting economic data out of South Korea.

The sex trade in Korea was estimated to amount to 14 trillion won last year, roughly 1.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.
The Korean Women's Development Institute, commissioned by the Ministry of Gender Equality, yesterday released a report on the sex trade last year.

"The official figures of the sex trade dropped compared to 2002 thanks to continued crackdown on prostitution," said Byun Hwa-soon, a researcher at the think tank.

"But we cannot deny that new forms of prostitution and overseas sex tourism, which domestic authorities cannot police, have increased."

More than 46,000 brothels and disguised sex-service businesses disguised were identified last year, down 23 percent from 2002, according to the report.

The number of prostitutes dropped by 18 percent to 269,000 during the same period. The sex trade involved some 94 million transactions in Korea last year, down from 170 million in 2002.

The amount of money traded for prostitution was over 14 trillion won, much less than 24 trillion won in 2002.

That proves it. We're definitely having a economic downturn.

Can you believe a nation would ~~blow~~ waste so much money? It is incredible. Robert Koehler at Marmot's Hole makes note of some further South Korean economic data.

Money spent on whoring in 2007: 14.952 trillion won ROK defense budget for 2008: 26.7 trillion won

I see it now. Kim Jong-il plans to conquer the south with the aid of prostitutes. If all that data above is true, he may well be on the way to it.

GI at ROK Drop is also commenting.

Comments (3)

How desolate. In Korea, wi... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by LaMedusa | September 22, 2008 3:29 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

LaMedusa:

How desolate. In Korea, with love and war, it's all about the money.

Posted on September 22, 2008 15:29

"disguised sex-service busi... (Below threshold)

2. Posted by Falze | September 22, 2008 4:22 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Falze:

"disguised sex-service businesses"

Is that like a hooker in Groucho glasses and moustache?

Posted on September 22, 2008 16:22

"Disguised" my ass. Any bus... (Below threshold)

3. Posted by hyperbolist | September 22, 2008 5:21 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

hyperbolist:

"Disguised" my ass. Any business in the RoK with a pair of those spinning blue, red, and white barber shop sign posts is a rub-and-tug or full-out brothel. And there are whole streets of Amsterdam-esque shops with women modeling in the windows near the big U.S. base in Itaewon, with drunk GIs and Korean men stumbling around.

(No, I was never a customer. I will swear on Pierre Trudeau's grave that I've never paid for sex, though I could care less if other people feel so inclined.)

Koreans also love traveling to Bangkok, presumably not for the food as they usually bring a suitcase full of their own. (No joke.)

At Christmas 2006, the city of Seoul offered to pay any man the equivalent of a few hundred dollars if he would sign a form promising not to visit a prostitute during the brief Christmas holiday. There was, of course, no way of monitoring whether anybody held up their end of the bargain, but lying about things related to money is generally not done (except when it comes to contracts with foreigners, which can be changed at will on a whim).

Strange country, that.

Posted on September 22, 2008 17:21