A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers

Cho Soon-ok was abducted and sold to a pimp in Dongducheon at the age of 17 in 1977. She joined a group of women in becoming sexSponsored Product workers serving American soldiers in Korea. Although “comfort women” is a term commonly used to describe women who were forced into sexual slavery during WWII, another group of women from South Korea were sexually exploited by their own government long after Japan’s colonial rule ended in 1945. During the Korean War, “special comfort women units” for South Korean soldiers and “comfort stations” for American-led U.N. troops were established around American military bases. Many of these women later worked in gijichon, or “camp towns”, which were built around the bases. Last year, 100 of them won a landmark victory when they sued the South Korean government for compensation for the sexual trauma they endured and won. The government was found guilty of “justifying and encouraging” prostitution in camp towns to maintain its military alliance with the US and earn American dollars, as well as for the “systematic and violent” way it detained the women and forced them to receive treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The women are now planning to bring their case to the United States.