Despite prostitution being illegal since 1948, women in South Korea were the fundamental source of sexual services for the U.S. military and a component of Korean-American relations.

The prostitutes were from Korea, the Philippines,[5] China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States[6][7][8] (specifically Russia, Kazakhstan[7][9][10][8] and Ukraine).

[37] The formation of licensed prostitution by Japan established registration protocols and mandatory STD examinations for Korean sex workers.

[43][44][45][46][47] Estimates for the number of Korean prostitutes below are variously based on figures from articles of independent writers, venereal disease examinations, and government statistics.

[58] Starting in the 1960s, an official organized system was established to provide the U.S. military men with entertainment and leisure that fulfilled their sexual fantasies, such as peep shows and strip clubs.

[31] Lawmakers of the National Assembly urged the South Korean government to train a supply of prostitutes for allied soldiers to prevent them from spending their dollars in Japan.

[58] Lee Seung-u, the deputy home minister, gave a response to the National Assembly that the government had made some improvements in the "Supply of Prostitutes" for American soldiers.

[66] The advocacy group My Sister's Place wrote in 1991 that the American soldiers contributed one billion dollars to the South Korean economy.

[35] The significant increase in camptown problems and tensions among community relations resulted in a number of policies that sought to improve U.S. military camp areas.

[68] In August 1971, the Secretary of Home Affairs Ministry, in cooperation with health authorities, gave orders to each police station to take precautions against sexually transmitted diseases and to instruct prostitutes about them.

[69] U.S. military personnel advised the South Korean government that the camp towns were breeding grounds for sexually transmitted infections and places of racist discrimination.

[65] Through the collaboration of the United States and the Republic of Korea, these policies were implemented to prevent and correct unfavorable conditions and base-community relations.

[73] The U.S. Military Police Corps and South Korean officials regularly raided prostitutes who were thought to be spreading disease.

[84] However, the murder of a prostitute did not itself spark a national debate about the prerogatives of the U.S. forces; on the other hand, the rape of a twelve-year-old Okinawan school girl in 1995 by three American servicemen, one being a U.S. Navy Seaman, the others U.S. Marines elicited much public outrage and brought wider attention to military-related violence against women.

[86] With the collapse of the Soviet Union, thousands of Russian migrated to Korea to work as entertainers while others forced into prostitution for both American soldiers and Korean civilian men.

[16] In May 2002, U.S. lawmakers asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for an investigation that "If U.S. soldiers are patrolling or frequenting these establishments, the military is in effect helping to line the pockets of human traffickers".

[88] In 2003, the Seoul District Court ruled that three night club owners near Camp Casey must compensate all Filipina women who had been forced into prostitution.

[91] Before the trial began, the International Organization for Migration studied the trafficking of foreign women and reported the result to its headquarters in Geneva.

[89] In 2002, the South Korean government completely discontinued issuing visas to Russian women, so prostitution businesses moved to bring in more Filipinas instead.

[86] In 2005, Filipina and Russian women became common in Korean red light districts and even accounted for 90 percent of the prostitutes in U.S. military camp towns.

A U.S. serviceman at Camp Foster (located on Okinawa) told a Stars and Stripes reporter that although prostitution was illegal in the United States, South Korea, Thailand and Australia, it was "pretty open".

The United States Forces Korea posted a video on YouTube, clarifying that "buying overpriced drinks in a juicy bar supports the human trafficking industry, a form of modern-day slavery."

However, some U.S. commanders continue to allow American soldiers to patronize the bars as long as they have not been caught directly engaging in prostitution or human trafficking.

[104] On June 25, 2014, 122 surviving Korean comfort women for the U.S. forces filed a lawsuit against their government to reclaim human dignity and demand ₩10 million compensation per plaintiff.

[105][106][107] In 2017, a three judge panel of the Central District Court in Seoul, ordered the government to pay 57 plaintiffs the equivalent of $4,240 each in compensation for physical and psychological damage.

[108] Since 2014, USFK has banned all American military service members from visiting any establishments that allow patrons to buy drinks (or juice) for the hostesses for the purposes of their companionship.

The arrival of American GIs resulted in greater demand for Korean sex workers and an increase in clientele for R&R (Rest and Relaxation[37]) establishments.

[118] Due to the economic dependence on the U.S. military's presence for jobs and income, prostitution decreased but competition significantly heightened among clubs, other businesses, and sex workers.

[13] It was difficult for South Korean prostitutes around the U.S. military bases to escape from being stigmatized by their society, so their only hope was to move to the United States and marry an American soldier.

[124][125] A former South Korean prostitute said to The New York Times that they have been the biggest sacrifice of the Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea.