'Not one of these new homes is mine': Women left behind by Seoul's red-light district closures

“A towering high-rise apartment complex rises over a strip of restaurants, clinics and cafes, just a 10-minute walk from Cheonho Station in Seoul's Gangdong District. Park, 46, who asked to be identified only by her surname, remembers a different place. She spent the last eight years of her life there as a sex worker in the area, which was home to more than 200 brothels at its peak before being shuttered in 2020 and redeveloped into the complex that stands today. Cheonho-dong once housed one of Seoul's best-known red-light districts, along with Miari Texas in Seongbuk District and Cheongnyangni 588 in Dongdaemun District. “I'd look at the map now and think, that was my room, there used to be a corner store there,” Park told The Korea Times. “I thought to myself, all these new homes going up and not one of them is mine.” Displaced, not freed Prostitution was first criminalized in Korea in 1961, but enforcement was significantly strengthened with the enactment of the Special Act on Prostitution in 2004. Under this law, people who buy sex can face up to one year in prison or fines of

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