KOREA, REPUBLIC OF (Tier 1)
The Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea) is a source,
transit, and destination country for men and women
subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced
labor, and women and girls in forced commercial sexual
exploitation. Some men and women from Russia,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, China, the
Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and other Southeast
Asian countries are recruited for employment in the
ROK, and subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor.

Some foreign women from Russia, Ukraine, Mongolia,
China, and other Southeast Asian countries who enter the
country on entertainment visas, including those recruited
to be singers and bar workers near U.S. military facilities,
were trafficked for forced prostitution. Most sex and labor
trafficking victims had their passports confiscated and
wages withheld by their employers, and some victims
had their movements restricted. Migrant workers who
travel to the ROK for employment may incur thousands of
dollars in debts, contributing to their vulnerability to debt
bondage. The use of debt bondage was common among
sex trafficking victims, and employers and brokers often
found ways to compound victims’ debt. Some women
from less developed countries recruited for marriage
with South Korean men through international marriage
brokers are subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor
upon arrival in the ROK; some brokers reportedly charge
on average $10,000-$13,000 from Korean clients. There
are approximately 500,000 low-skilled migrant workers
in the ROK from elsewhere in Asia, many of whom were
working under the Employment Permit System (EPS).

While new protections were implemented for EPS workers,
observers claimed the EPS assigns excessive power to
employers over workers’ mobility and legal status, making
them vulnerable to trafficking. South Korean women
were subjected to forced prostitution domestically and
abroad in destinations including the United States,
Canada, Japan, and Australia. According to observers
in destination countries, South Korean men continue
to be a major source of demand for child sex tourism in
Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. The growing use
of the Internet aided the brokering of the sex trade in
the ROK, and in some cases South Korean nationals also
used online brokers to arrange for prostitution overseas,
particularly in the Philippines, Thailand, and China.
The Government of the Republic of Korea fully complies
with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking. The government’s framework for addressing
human trafficking is confined to the trafficking of
women and children for commercial sexual exploitation,
and often conflates prostitution and trafficking. The
government did report efforts to investigate, prosecute,
and convict offenders of trafficking violations. Authorities
reported that trafficking related crimes against foreigners
were investigated and prosecuted as human rights abuses.
The government does not have procedures to proactively
identify victims of trafficking, and did not identify any
trafficking victims during the year. Additionally, the

government has never prosecuted a South Korean citizen
for engaging in child sex tourism abroad.
Recommendations for the Republic of Korea:
Significantly increase efforts to investigate, prosecute,
and convict trafficking offenders involved in both sex
and labor trafficking in the ROK; ensure immigration and
police officials are trained to identify victims of sex and
labor trafficking; develop and implement proactive victim
identification procedures to identify trafficking victims
among vulnerable populations, including foreign women
arrested for prostitution and foreign workers; develop and
implement a formal trafficking-specific referral process
for law enforcement officials to direct trafficking victims
to short- and long-term care; increase the availability of
protection and assistance to victims of labor trafficking;
make greater efforts to inform migrant workers of their
rights in the ROK; as a preventative measure, take steps
to ensure foreign workers have judicial recourse to hold
employers accountable for abuses including nonpayment
of wages and the withholding of passports; ensure labor
offices have adequate interpretation services to serve
foreign workers; take steps to reduce the demand for child
sex tourism by increasing law enforcement efforts to
investigate and prosecute South Korean child sex tourists;
and improve the available statistical data on trafficking in
the ROK.
Prosecution
The ROK government made some anti-trafficking law
enforcement efforts over the last year. The ROK prohibits
trafficking through its 2004 “Act on the Punishment
of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic” and its Labor
Standards Act, which prescribes up to 10 years’ and five
years’ imprisonment, respectively – penalties that are
sufficiently stringent. Authorities reported prosecuting
27 offenders, of which 17 were convicted and the
remaining 10 are still in trial; however, the government
was unable to report details of these cases, including the
sentences prescribed to convicted trafficking offenders.
An additional six sex trafficking offenders were fined
under Article 18 of the Act on the Punishment of Acts
of Arranging Sexual Traffic; two of them received fines
of $1,700. There were 65 prosecutions under Article 11,
which can be used to prosecute trafficking offenses.
However, the Government of the ROK was not able to
provide more information regarding the underlying
facts of these cases; therefore, it is unclear how many
of these prosecutions involved trafficking offenses.
The government convicted one South Korean national
under the Immigration Control Act for withholding a
foreign worker’s passport to secure payment of debts,
and sentenced the offender to 10 months’ imprisonment.
Over 10,000 migrant workers reported violations of the
labor law in 2009, most of which involved unpaid wages.
The government did not identify trafficking cases among
complaints filed against the EPS. The Ministry of Labor
reported employers withheld $20.5 million in unpaid
wages to 9,452 workers, and authorities assisted workers

in getting employers to pay about 55 percent of these
unpaid wages. While more than 2,000 cases were referred
to prosecutors, it was unclear how many of these cases
were prosecuted. Restrictions on the ability of foreign
workers to change jobs were improved by 2009 revisions
to the EPS, but continued to make it difficult for migrant
workers to seek legal redress. The government began to
enforce new laws restricting the actions of international
marriage brokers. In December 2009 the government
investigated the some 2,000 brokers registered in the ROK
and found 422 violations, though none of these violations
led to criminal trafficking prosecutions. Foreign officials
expressed concern local police were not motivated to
investigate some sex trafficking leads that had been
provided to South Korean authorities. There were some
reports police officers took bribes from brothel owners in
exchange for prior notice about police raids. In May 2009,
the ROK government sentenced one police officer to one
year in prison for accepting bribes from a brothel. Another
six officers were subjected to disciplinary measures for
taking smaller bribes from brothel owners.
Protection
The Government of the Republic of Korea exhibited some
efforts to protect trafficking victims, but its lack of a
system to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable
groups limited its ability to assist and protect victims.
Authorities did not report identifying any trafficking
victims during the year, including among the 20,000
foreigners deported from the country in 2009 for
immigration violation. The government reported it
referred foreign victims of sexual or labor exploitation
to institutions providing victim care, though the
government lacks an institutionalized referral process.
Some undocumented workers who may have been
trafficking victims were rounded up in police raids and
deported. In 2009, the government spent $15 million
on shelters and victim care facilities to support victims
of abuse, including trafficking victims; these shelters
were accessible to trafficking victims, though the
government was unable to provide data on the number
of trafficking victims who used these shelters. Most of
the victim shelters and counseling centers accessible
to trafficking victims are run by NGOs funded either
wholly or in part by the government. In December
2009, the government began requiring counselors and
social workers who deal with women formerly in the sex
industry to take four weeks of sex trafficking training.
The government also established during the year 14
additional shelters for foreign women who were victims
of violence, including trafficking, bringing the total to 18
shelters. The Ministry of Labor operated eight Migrant
Workers’ Centers nationwide to help foreign workers in
the country. However, according to one NGO observer,
some staff members at labor offices charged with assisting
migrant workers were unwilling to assist some migrant
workers with their labor complaints. The government can
provide “G-1 visas” to trafficking victims who assist in
the investigation and prosecution of traffickers, but did

not provide any trafficking victims a G-1 visa during the
reporting period. The government ran telephone hotlines
accessible to victims of sex trafficking and to victims of
labor trafficking.
Prevention
The ROK government continued anti-trafficking
prevention efforts during the reporting period, though
these efforts were focused on sex trafficking and did
not address labor trafficking. In 2009, the government
distributed brochures on preventing the sex trade and
trafficking to public agencies and counseling centers
and ran advertisements to raise awareness about sex
trafficking on subways and electronic billboards. During
the reporting period, the Ministry of Gender Equality
created a compulsory training program on sex trafficking
prevention and disseminated the material to public
agencies. In an effort to reduce demand for commercial
sex acts, the Ministry of Justice continued to run 39
“Johns Schools,” requiring convicted male “clients” of
prostitution attend these one-day seminars – in lieu of
criminal punishment. According to observers, South
Korean men continue to be a major source of demand for
child sex tourism throughout Asia. During the reporting
period, the government did not prosecute any Korean
nationals for engaging in child sex tourism abroad. The
ROK government conducted training for the fisheries
industry on the Child and Youth Protection Act, but did
not make any other efforts to reduce the overall demand
for child sex tourism. The ROK government provided antitrafficking
training to troops prior to their deployment
abroad on international peacekeeping missions. The
Republic of Korea is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP
Protocol.