Even the reportage on the reporting is exploitative. Not unlike the Chronicle, your attractiion to pithy puns further demeans the subject of the article. It's hard to see her plight for the horror show it must be, when everyone's using cute, jokey phraselogy to describe it.

Korean community leaders have a valid point. The title of the series was intended to titilate. "Diary of a Sex Slave" harkens to pulp fiction titles, "I was a teen-age call girl," etc. The Chronicle did not choose an empathetic stance nor a tone of moral outrage or hint at crusading for moral justice. It went with a title that promised juicy details.

It is in the headline of an article that editorial bias is most strongly reflected...and the title of this series said it all - the Chronicle, not unlike the pimps and madams running the massage parlors, thought nothing of making a buck off the sexual exploitation of an unfortunate. Or at least, didn't mind the appearance of that. Apparently, when you think you're on the side of 'right' you can use the same tactics as the side of 'wrong'. It's just business.

Carol-san,

I wouldn't make the claim of being an expert on the Korean sex trade, especially since I don't speak the language. However, Korea did have a thriving sex industry until the government cracked down on it last year. I don't think that prostitution and human trafficking are synonomous and there are probably many women in the industry of their own volition, just as there are in Japan.

One thing that has happened in Japan, possibly as a result of the crackdown, is a huge influx of Korean women into the Japanese sex industry. Near Ueno Station in Tokyo, in an area called Uguisudani, there are now thirty or more shops and "escort services" blatantly advertising the sexual services of Korean women. Those are the one's that advertise. It's not a secret. You can pick up magazines and books at any major bookstore in Japan all about the sexual services in that area, listing shops, phone numbers, services offered, often with photos of the women and detailed reports about the journalist's "experiences" at these places. Many hotels in the area, offer companions for those who check in, usually with a photo menu.

Sexual intercourse is not explicitly offered because that would violate the prostitution laws of Japan. Other sexual services: anal, fellatio, frottage, simulated sex using the thighs as a faux vagina--these are all listed up.

If I can believe what the police are telling me, and I spent two years in Tokyo as a police reporter (vice, organized crime) for the Yomiuri Shinbun, so I think I have some credible sources, most of these clubs are Yakuza (Sumiyoshikai) backed and not all of the women are doing the work that they were promised. Does it meet the UN definition of trafficking? I don't know.

It would be nice to have statistical evidence that shows a great deal of Korean involvement in the sex trade but no one is taking statistics. At least in Japan, I think you can say with a fair degree of certainity that there are a large number of Korean women involved in the sex trade, a lot of Korean men with organized crime ties brokering the deals, and that some of these women have been duped into doing the work or forced into doing more than they are comfortable with, and in some cases, probably "sex slaves."

Does this hold true in the United States? It might.

Korea has done a lot to improve it's sexual trafficking problems but I suggest you look at the Trafficking in Persons Report for 2004, 2005, and 2006 yourself.

I understand why the Korean community would be up in arms about the articles but the San Francisco Chronicle may not be far from the mark. A tendency to extrapolate the experiences of one individual as indicative of the entire sordid business is a problematic way of doing the story. Before the Korean community chastises the SFC, maybe it would be a good idea to use their community resources to see what the state of events really is in San Francisco for these women.

One way of getting people to understand a problem and care about it, is to give the problem a human face, an individual that people can identify with. Statistics and abstract explanations of the problem don't have the visceral impact of an individual's story. I don't think it was written to titillate the reader but that's my subjective judgement. If the goal of the article was to get people aware of the problem and concerned about it, it succeeded.

I'm an expat living in Korea, and though I'm not surprised that Korea would leap to protect the virtue of its nationals, the notion that Korean authorities should condemn anyone else regarding exploitative practises is laughable.

A previous letter-writer mentioned that the goverment crack-down, which allegedly confronted the booming sex-trade. I have seen no change at all. Double-barber poles spin at all hours and on every corner, advertising (oddly enough) both haircuts and sexual services. Massage parlours are advertised with large bright signs on all main streets. The red light districts continue to operate with impunity; the notorious "Hooker Hill" in Seoul even boasts a retinue of cops at the foot of the hill, who stand on guard seemingly oblivious to the trade occuring under their noses. "Room salons," "juicy bars," "sexy bars," "coffee girls,"... the sex trade comes in many flavours, catering to men of all ranks.

The issue made headlines in a satirical newspaper based on The Onion in a piece called "Human Trafficking Lights To Be Installed" and another called "Police Chief Told to Stop Winking While Discussing Anti-Prostitution Law."(you can read them at www..theyangpa..wordpress..com)

Public mores re: sex are firmly Confucian and conservative, but if you scratch the surface, you'll find a vibrant, shameless industry.