ECPAT South Korea (Tacteen Naeil) was established in 1995 and focuses on ending overseas child sex tourism by Koreans; promoting the reporting of sex offenders; providing education and training for caregivers and counselling for child victims; campaigns and awareness raising on the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children in Travel and Tourism; and preventive programmes for the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Contact: Lee Hyun-sook Lee and Eunwoo Song
Phone: +82 2 3387480
Address: 3, Saemunan-ro 3-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Email: ecpat.tacteen@gmail.com
Website: http://www.tacteen.net/ecpat
In its 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, the United States Department of State reported that South Korean perpetrators travel to Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia and the Philippines to commit child sexual abuse.
On 5 November 2015, the Republic of Korea ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
In December 2014, the Minister of Gender Equality and Family, Ms. Kim Hee-Jung, participated in the “Global Summit to Tackle Online Child Sexual Exploitation” held in London.
Partial
Age of sexual consent is 16 years with a close-in-age exemption if a person under 19 engages in consensual sexual activities with a child over 13. However, in South Korea, there is no specific standard or criteria for defining ‘consent’ and so the focus will be on proving the use of “fraudulent means” or “threat of force” rather than an absence of consent.
Boys Initiative – South Korea Report, 2021
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Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for SEC crimes. There is no mention to the double criminality requirement with regards to extraterritoriality.
Extradition is permitted but requires double criminality and may be denied if the offender is a South Korean national.
ECO South Korea, 2018
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include depictions of the sexual parts of a child’s body for primarily sexual purposes, nor non-visual material, However, the definition does include material depicting a person appearing to be a child and “representations that can be perceived as children” which could be interpreted as computer/digitally generated CSAM.
ECO South Korea, 2018
Not Yet Assessed
Partial
South Korea has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
South Korea has not ratified the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
ECO South Korea, 2018
Yes
South Korea has 39 ‘Sunflower Centres’ established to support victims of sexual offences. They are operated by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Famiy. They provide support such as medical legal and psychological services. Police and stationed at the centres to provide victim-centred interviews. These are available for all regardless of gender.
Boys Initiative – South Korea Report, 2021
Not Yet Assessed
Not Yet Assessed
Partial
There are national publicly available statistics on rape and sexual assualt of juveniles and children, sexual exploitation of children in prostitution and offences related to child sexual abuse material. The data is disaggregated by gender but not broken down by other categories.
Boys Initiative – South Korea Report, 2021
