Dear TKD World, Pay Attention To The S.Korean-Sponsored Sex Trafficking Scandal

The nightmare of sex slavery continued after World War II. It wasn’t the Imperial Japanese Empire, but South Korea’s dictators, who continued the practice, where girls and women were forced into sex slavery to service American troops during and after the Korean War.

After the Imperial Japanese Empire finally surrendered to the Allies in 1945, it was a turbulent rollercoaster ride for all Koreans. Korea, for starters, was split along the 38th Parallel into North Korea and South Korea.

The country's division was supposed to be temporary with the United States backing South Korea and the Soviet Union backing North Korea but neither side could come up with a final agreement, then came the Korean War that lasted from 1950 until 1953. What was supposed to be temporary, only for a few years, became “permanent.”

One doesn’t need to say much about North Korea over the decades because most of us virtually know everything. South Korea’s government, on the other hand, has a lot to answer for. This also extends to the list of horrible things that the United States NEEDS to answer for but probably won’t for decades or even centuries.

Before South Korea’s government was under democratic control, the people endured oppression from three right-wing dictators. Last year, Seoul’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a report that blamed the late-Park Chung-Hee and the late-Chun Doo-Hwan for a long list of flagrant human rights violations.

The first of the atrocities centered on the infamous “Brothers Home” and other similar detention centers nationwide. Detainees were beaten, tortured, raped, and killed on a regular basis. The “undesirables” were rounded up and placed in these detention centers under the authority of Chun’s “Social Purification Project” which was aimed to eradicate “social evil.”

Chun, who took over after the assassination of Park, employed brutal methods to squash pro-democracy protests. One famous incident was the “Kwangju Massacre” in which riot police brutally beat up striking workers.

At least 667 people died within the walls of the Brothers Home.

Children who had not reached a certain age were forcefully put into the foster care system and processed for illegal adoptions. Under Chun’s regime, the number of South Korean children adopted by overseas families drastically spiked.

Many overseas adoptees learned that their adoptions were illegal.

Under the policies of Park Chung-Hee, Korean citizens who were forcibly made to work for Japanese companies or forced into sex slavery as “comfort women” for Japanese troops weren’t able to get justice. This was all because of the “Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of South Korea” which was passed in order to “normalize” relations between the two countries.

This treaty pretty much “absolved” the Japanese government of all wrongdoing. South Korea opted to set up a public fund that would use donations to compensate Korean victims instead of taking legal action to force the Japanese companies to pay up.

The figurative rabbit hole gets DEEPER…

One of the biggest issues when it comes to relations between the two countries is seeking justice for the girls and women who were forced into sex slavery. Those girls and women never received the justice they deserve and they’ll likely won’t receive it. Under Park’s regime, it was forbidden to publicly talk about the issue. If you were a victim, you’d get in a lot of trouble with the South Korean authorities by going public.

Park didn’t want to piss off the Japanese government as it was providing a majority of the funds for South Korea’s independence.

Former politician Yohei Kono came out in 1993 with the “Kono Statement” which was an open admittance of sex slavery. Japan’s right-wing pundits were quick to criticize the Kono Statement. It is also common for right-wing Japanese politicians to vandalize memorials dedicated to comfort women.

The Japanese government even sought action to get those comfort women memorials removed.

The girls and women who survived the nightmare had to live through another nightmare.

The sexual exploitation of South Korea’s girls and women continued after World War II as they were made to sexually service United States troops. Sang-Hun Choe wrote a piece that got published in the New York Times which reported that surviving comfort women will be taking their case to the United States courts.

This follows a September 2022 ruling issued by the South Korean Supreme Court that puts the blame on South Korea’s government for the damages inflicted on the sex workers at United States military camp towns (which were formed as a result of the 1953 “Korea-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty”). The South Korean government, starting with Syngman Rhee’s regime, played a fundamental town in creating the camp towns which were the hubs for the newly resurrected illegal sex trade.

The South Korean government went derelict in its duty to protect these women and instead gathered them to perform sexual services for U.S troops. The South Korean Supreme Court further ruled that between the years of 1958 and 1977 (from Syngman Rhee’s regime to Park Chung-Hee’s regime), a number of plaintiffs suffered mental damage because they were held in quarantine against their will without any legal grounds by the South Korean government.

Though prostitution is illegal in the country, the South Korean government classified them as “industrial workers,” “civil diplomats,” and “patriots.” These unfortunate women were pimped out to U.S. troops by their own government. Park Geun-ae, one of the comfort women interviewed, is one of many who were conscripted into sex slavery as a minor. She was 16 at the time of forced sex slavery.

Other teenage girls like Park were kidnapped and forced to become comfort women for the United States troops stationed in the country. The women were kept against their will and constantly pumped full of penicillin to prevent them from spreading STDs to the American troops. This prison was infamously named the “Monkey House” because the women forced into sex slavery walked like monkeys in a cage from having so much penicillin pumped into their systems. There was even a graveyard made especially for the comfort women, too, where they would be placed after dying from an overdose of antibiotics.

Korean government officials, face-to-face, commended them as being “dollar-earning patriots.”

It was in 1975 that Park was kidnapped and sold to a pimp. Two years later in 1977, 17-year-old Cho Soon Ok met a similar fate. Cho aspired to become a professional ballerina but that dream was dashed when men kidnapped her and sold her off to a pimp where she had to sexually service American troops on a regular basis. She ended up in Dongducheon, located north of the South Korean capital of Seoul, which happened to be the largest camp town and the location of the Monkey House.

Sex work was a crucial part of the camp towns’ economies. The money generated from the sex work in those camp towns was crucial for the South Korean economy. The South Korean government is further complicit in using these sex workers to encourage American troops to stay in the country instead of going to Japan for their vacation time.

There was an estimated total of at least 300,000 girls and women doing sex work by 1958 with over half of that number operating within those camp towns. A 2015 piece in Politico interviewed one former sex worker, Aeran Kim, who said that the government encouraged them to sell their sex services to the troops as much as possible.

Politico interviewed another former sex worker. This person moved to one of the camp towns after being orphaned during the Korean War. She got pregnant as a result and put her son up for adoption in the United States. When the son came to find her, it was not a happy reunion.

The woman told the son to forget about her. She believes that she failed at being a mother.

“Women like me were the biggest sacrifice for the my country’s alliance with the Americans. Looking back, I think my body was not mine, but the government’s and the U.S. Military’s.” — Anonymous sex worker interviewed in the Politico article authored by David Vine.

The Politico piece mentioned a 2002 State Department Report and a 2007 research study that both conclude that South Korea, through the U.S military bases, is a major hotbed for the transnational trafficking of women from the region.

These women continue to suffer as a 2014 article in the Korea Herald reported. Many of these women are being evicted from their homes. The article also reported that many South Koreans aren’t informed about the camp town women or their plight. Park Kyung-Soo of the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crime against Korean Civilians, who was interviewed for the article, said these women have little to no options because of what happened to them.

The women of the Anjeong-ri neighborhood (near Camp Humphreys), on which the Korea Herald piece is centered on, struggle to survive on a stipend of $300-$400 a month.

Women in college weren’t spared that horrible fate either. Professor Jid Lee’s autobiography To Kill A Tiger: A Memoir of Korea does a good job of explaining sex slavery during and after World War II. There is one chapter dedicated to a former comfort woman, who Lee gave the pseudonym of “Minsoon,” who suffered greatly at the hands of Japanese troops.

Another chapter centered on Ewha University (which Lee currently calls the world’s largest university for women) and its first president Helen Kim who was known as being a feminist who identified with political right-wingers. Lee further mentioned reading Kim’s autobiography in which the latter boasts about having a party for American military officers where they would be paired off with the women students (who were called the “teachers’ pets”).

This sparked rumors that the women students offered sexual services to the American officers. Lee further commented on the irony of the situation as Kim made these horrible comprises which enabled her to remain as Ewha University’s president. It ultimately enabled Ewha University to produce generations of women to speak out against such atrocities and the compromises that Helen Kim made in the process.

Helen Kim’s successor, Ok-Gill Kim, used the campus to shield student protesters who openly spoke out against Park Chung Hee’s “Yushin Constitution” that would make him “president for life.”

The “militarized prostitution” under the authority of South Korea’s right-wing military dictators is one of the many atrocities.

What does any of this have to with Taekwondo!?

Directly, nothing…

Indirectly, f — king everything… The answer is multi-faceted because of the circumstances and factors at hand.

The development of Taekwondo, leading to the split between the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) and the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), is a major part of Korean history after World War II.

General Choi and several of his men, including Grandmaster Nam Tae-hi, performed a demonstration for Syngman Rhee, South Korea’s first dictator after World War II, in which Rhee stated that the style was “Taekkyon.” Choi and his men knew what they were demonstrating wasn’t Taekkyon but they couldn’t go against Rhee out of political ramifications.

Choi met with a number of officials at a kisaeng (the Korean equivalent of a Japanese geisha house), which is thoroughly explained in Alex Gillis’ A Killing Art: The Untold History of Taekwondo, to come up with an official name for the art that would end up being South Korea’s national sport. They decided to officially call the style “Taekwondo” which then received approval from Rhee’s administration.

Then fast-forward to the military coup of 1961, which Choi participated in, that ended up with General Park Chung-Hee leading a successful coup in Seoul. Park would become the second dictator and first military dictator of South Korea. This would be the start of Choi losing his power and influence over the decades.

Park was a known Japanese collaborator and Choi was one of the people who called for his execution thirteen years prior. Choi was relieved from military command and was appointed the South Korean ambassador to Malaysia where he neglected his dues and focused on Taekwondo. He returned to South Korea in 1964 and would establish the ITF in 1966 after Choi resigned from the Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA).

The increased tensions between Choi and Park would lead to the South Korean government revoking its recognition of the ITF. Park ultimately took control of Taekwondo and this would lead to the creation of the WTF with former Korean CIA (KCIA) operative Dr. Kim Un-Yong aka “Mickey Kim,” who is also a former military officer, being its first president.

Taekwondo under the guidance of the WTF, led by Kim, would become a global political tool. On a side note, the creation of the WTF happened at the same time that Park’s regime was hunting down Kim Dae-Jung (Park’s main political opponent who would become one of South Korea’s future presidents), which the KCIA succeeded with his kidnapping in Japan. To realize this lofty goal of turning Taekwondo into a global sensation, which ultimately led to the sport aspect being accepted as an Olympic event, Kim needed lots of money.

In Gillis’ book, part of Kim’s goal was realized in the construction of the Kukkiwon which was built on top of a mountain.

Where did the money for the Kukkiwon’s construction come from?

According to the book (on page 126 of A Killing Art), Kim said that financing came from donations from acquaintances such as Samsung and other companies. An American businessman named Hoss Rafaty (a former special assistant to the WTF President since 2007 and would become WTF Secretary General in 2015), one of many people Gillis had interviewed for his book, gave the suggestion that the Kukkiwon be financially cut off. This was in response to when Gillis brought up the money going into the Kukkiwon which went to the WTF (on page 221 of A Killing Art).

How did those companies come up with the funds to help with Kukkiwon’s construction and to help realize Kim’s global plans for Taekwondo?

Korea was powerless and impoverished (the poverty was crushing the country) which led to the rise of the chaebols, the Korean equivalent to the Japanese zaibatsus, such as Samsung (which started out as a grocery store and became one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world). The policies established by Park’s regime, leading to Park’s “Miracle on the Han River,” enabled Samsung to expand beyond food.

Park offered generous incentives to the chaebols in the form of loans (foreign and domestic) and tax cuts.

How did Park’s administration get the money to loan to the chaebols?

South Korea received funding from several sources, whether they were “legit” or illegal, and did morally objectionable things to get that funding. Given the terms of the treaty that normalized relations between South Korea and Japan, the latter was legally “absolved” of its wrongdoing against the Korean people, which meant victims of sex slavery were not allowed to publicly speak out. Since the money generated from sex slavery in the camp towns was crucial in keeping South Korea’s economy above water, one should assume that the source of income would contribute to the funding for the government-issued loans to Samsung and other chaebols.

Park’s administration exploited the people of South Korea to get the financial capital needed for his political goals.

The chaebols were in NO position to question where the money was coming from. It shouldn’t be surprising if a good amount of the money loaned out by the government came from the backs of the women trafficked in the camp towns.

This pretty much happens: The money generated from the sex trafficking within the camp towns gets put into South Korea’s economy, Park’s regime combines that stream of income with other streams for financial capital, Park’s regime uses that capital to loan money to the chaebols, the chaebols financially contribute to building the Kukkiwon’s HQ (along with giving more money to the Kukkiwon), and the Kukkiwon funds the endeavors of the WTF.

The money (which obviously includes the revenue generated from sex trafficking in the camp towns) amassed and hoarded by South Korea’s dictatorship, through the KCIA, was funneled into the American Taekwondo Association (ATA). The late Ron Turchi, who passed away in 2020, recalled an incident in 1986, during one of several interviews in 2011 conducted by Gillis (page 159 of Gillis’ A Killing Art).

Turchi, at the time in 1986, was the right-hand man and confidante to ATA founder Huang “Hank” Lee, who gave him an urgent mission: act as the head of security for Chun Doo-Hwan’s brother, who was visiting the United States, for a few days. The security detail consisted of Turchi and a couple of other martial artists. During that time, Turchi witnessed an exchange between Lee and Chun’s brother where the former gave large bags of cash to the former. Turchi chose not to say anything at the time because the ATA ran and thrived on “blind loyalty.”

That’s the first part of the answer and the second part is hypocrisy within the leadership. Out of all the known styles of martial arts in the world, Taekwondo is the only one that is (South Korean) government-controlled and regulated.

I currently work as an instructor (I hold a 3rd Dan) at a TKD dojang and one of my responsibilities is to recite the tenets after each class. When I think about the tenets, I think about the sheer irony and hypocrisy of the leadership.

The five tenets are

• Courtesy is defined as being respectful of people, animals, and things. It can also be defined as being ashamed of one’s vices while having contempt for the vices of others, being polite to one another, and encouraging a sense of justice & humanity (I do find it ironic that schools cite the late General Choi who is a morally bankrupt piece of sh!t).
• Integrity, which is defined as being able to tell what is right and what is wrong. The explanation continues that “integrity” is being able to stand up to what is ethically correct and to be above corruption.
• Perseverance is defined as never giving up and striving to do your best to obtain an objective.
• Self-Control is defined as not displaying ill-tempered will. We exercise self-control by controlling our actions.
• Indomitable Spirit is defined as when you’re doing the right thing when your principles are pitted against growing and overwhelming odds. You keep pushing when virtually everything seems to be against you.

In terms of South Korea’s military dictators, who took over Taekwondo’s development through the Kukkiwon, f — king violated all five tenets. Many martial arts experts, specifically those trained in Korean arts like Taekwondo, were in service to those regimes (especially with a number of martial artists being employed by the KCIA).

The South Korean government violated the first tenet by forcing these girls and women into sex slavery, continuing the horrible legacy of the Imperial Japanese Empire. It violated the second tenet by denying basic human rights to these women and kept them in isolation, where they were pumped full of antibiotics that resulted in the deaths of some of the women. It violated the third tenet by not doing right by these women in which the survivors still with the shame and trauma. It violated the fourth tenet by going the easy route instead of the right route which meant it was easier to continue what the Japanese military did. It violated the fifth tenet by doing all sorts of wrong let alone mistreating these women.

During his time as SK’s president, Chun ordered an investigation into the Brothers Home detention center be squashed because the scandal would’ve sullied the media buzz surrounding the upcoming 1988 Summer Olympics where Taekwondo was showcased to the world under the leadership of Kim Un-Yong. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Chun’s administration would have punished anybody who went public about what happened at the camp towns across the country.

IOC member and former vice-president Richard Pound wrote a book titled Five Rings Over Korea that detailed the machinations of the road to the 1988 Olympics. Pound explained that the South Korean government had a “do or die” attitude in trying to make the event successful. Public protests were banned and student protests were confined to university campuses. Chun’s administration would not have hesitated to suppress anything having to do with the state-sponsored sex trafficking of women in the camp towns.

South Korea’s government has a lot of human rights atrocities to answer for. Since Taekwondo is the ONLY style in the world whose development is under the control of the SK government, it’s very important for the TKD world to pay close attention. In this respect, it’s very important for the TKD world to learn about state-sponsored sex trafficking from the Korean War and beyond.