As eager young American servicemen from nearby Camp Casey started to fill the bar around her, the woman repeatedly touched a patron suggestively and offered a proposition as thinly veiled as she was scantily clad. Prostitution and indentured servitude are everyday realities at many of these popular hangouts for American soldiers, according to past and present bar girls, many of whom were enticed from the Philippines to work in the South Korean bars with false promises that they could earn legitimate incomes as singers and entertainers.
The U. And in practice, U. But no such blanket prohibition exists for juicy bars, despite their history of trouble. About 50 entertainment establishments β U. Forces Korea personnel due to prostitution and human trafficking violations.
Another 19 outside Osan Air Base were almost added to that list earlier this year for similar reasons before they collectively agreed to clean up their acts. Still, dozens β if not hundreds β of other juicy bars, like the one outside Camp Casey, have managed to evade sanctions. The problems are so widespread that the U. And, if we find out it is going on, that bar goes off-limits. That is why they say they have not put all the juicy bars categorically off-limits.
But there are also powerful economic factors that help keep the doors to the juicy bars open and American servicemen flowing inside. The juicy bars are a big part of the tourist business in South Korea, and many are officially licensed by the government. Owners of the 19 Osan-area juicy bars threatened with U. And at Camp Casey earlier this year, juicy bar owners demanded that U.
Close government scrutiny of the juicy bars is lacking. Officials of Korean government and police agencies said they suspect prostitution occurs inside juicy bars, but none said their agency has primary responsibility for addressing the problem.
