GI Heaven Korean Camptown Women

During and after the Korean War, South Korea backed a state-controlled prostitution system in camp towns stretching from the DMZ down to Seoul, surrounding U.S. military bases. The South Korean government promoted prostitution as a woman's patriotic duty, while locals grimly nicknamed the strip "GI Heaven." To protect what authorities called sexual hygiene, Korean and U.S. security forces swept these towns, sending women suspected of having sexually transmitted diseases to detention centers like the "Monkey House," where they endured forced medical injections and imprisonment until officials declared them cured. Decades later, former sex workers sued the South Korean state, and a 2018 appellate court ruling acknowledged that the government had operated and managed these camp towns and violated the women's human rights through forced internment and coercive treatment.

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