No way out

International | A deadly fire in South Korea sheds new light on the scandal of forced prostitution around the world | Mindy Belz

Thirty million Koreans travel to their hometowns during the long Lunar New Year holiday (known elsewhere in Asia as Chinese New Year). South Korea's stock markets and newspapers, along with most other businesses, closed down for the four-day holiday early this month. But for workers in the country's red-light districts, the day is never done.

A bar in the city of Kunsan south of Seoul burned to the ground at midday just before the holiday. Inside 14 prostitutes and one male employee died. Initial press reports claimed that "bar staff" succumbed to the blaze "sleeping in rooms above the establishment," as a blurb in the Korea Herald put it. But what actually happened reveals more than accidental tragedy visited on workers of the night.