She and her husband live with their son, a low-paid manual worker, and his family, relying partly on government subsidies. She still does it so she can pay for arthritis treatment - about $250 a month.
A couple years later, she began selling sex.
She started out selling Bacchus drinks about 20 years ago. “I know that I shouldn’t do this,” said the elderly prostitute with the limp, “but no one can say that I should starve to death rather than come here.” She agreed to talk with the Associated Press at a nearby coffee shop after she failed to solicit any customers, but refused to give her name because her family doesn’t know she’s a prostitute. Despite occasional raids, however, the sex business still thrives in the shadows. Prostitution is illegal in South Korea, and traditional red-light zones have been disappearing as urban redevelopment projects encroach on old neighborhoods. Hundreds more “Bacchus ladies” are believed to operate across the country. Now, after the police raid, there are roughly 200, many in their 60s and 70s, Lee said, with about 20 women regularly in the Piccadilly plaza area. In late 2013 and early 2014, the number of “Bacchus ladies” peaked at about 300 to 400 in the Jongno neighborhood alone, according to Lee Hosun, a professor at Korea Soongsil Cyber University in Seoul who has interviewed dozens of the women. South Korean sex workers rally against the government’s prostitution policy in downtown Seoul. Some get paid to drink with older men and only occasionally have sex with them.Įlderly widowers and divorced men, meanwhile, seek out the women to fulfill sexual desires or fight loneliness amid lingering prejudice against second marriages and dating among senior citizens. Widowed, divorced or abandoned by their children, some now find themselves without a social safety net and so are forced to take up prostitution. As a growing, ultra-competitive middle class has become preoccupied with getting ahead, many elderly and poor people have been left to fend for themselves.ĭespite the country’s dramatic growth after the 1950-53 Korean War, many older women in South Korea’s male-dominated culture didn’t receive equal education and job opportunities in their youth. The middle-aged and elderly women and their customers - both pitied and scorned in this conservative country - provide a look at the dark side of South Korea’s rapid economic rise and erosion of traditional parent-child roles. The nickname comes from the popular energy drink that many of the prostitutes have traditionally sold. “Hey, do you want to go with me? I can treat you really well,” a 76-year-old woman with a limp says as a reporter approaches her on a recent sunny afternoon.ĭespite a police crackdown this spring that resulted in 33 arrests, including an 84-year-old woman, the so-called “Bacchus ladies” can still be seen near the Piccadilly theater in Seoul’s Jongno neighborhood. SEOUL, South Korea - As about a dozen elderly men loiter in a small plaza near a cinema, mostly chatting or watching people pass by, several deeply wrinkled women stroll among them, trolling for customers willing to pay for sex in nearby motels. South Korea hopes to build sustainable floating city by 2025 'We have concerns': Defense chief Austin warns China over hypersonic missile program
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