Bikini Bars

One of the fun things about life in Korea is the ease with which you can find at least a decent bar. The sheer number and variety of drinking establishments is a testament to the important place drinking holds in modern Korean society. Nearly as ubiquitous as the bars — and, of course, usually pretty close by — are the brothels. Naturally the two industries tend to combine in various ways, some more licit than others — there is actually a chain of bars called Sexy Girl and bars of that ilk are known as sexy bars, which are basically bars where the waitresses wear bikinis.

I never went to one as the prices are steep, but apparently some of them could be getting in trouble soon. Perhaps you should go while there’s still time!

If women servers wear extremely skimpy outfits in regular restaurants, could they become the target of regulation due to a breakdown in public morals?

All eyes are on whether the prosecution will file charges against a ‘bikini bar’ the police cracked down on for creating problems for public order.

The Gunsan Police Department is waiting for a decision by the prosecution on whether to file charges against Mr. Park (43), owner of a ‘bikini bar’ in Gunsan City’s Miryong-dong where female servers in revealing outfits entertain guests, on suspicion of violation of public morals in food safety regulations.

In case the prosecution decides to indict this business without detention or more heavily, the police plan to pursue a vigorous investigation of bikini bars in the province. This is the first time in the country for an autonomous police force to regulate bikini bars. The police are looking at this decision as a test case for charging bikini bars with public morals offences.

It was announced that there are 3 or 4 such bikini bars in the province, and it appears that from the day that prosecution is decided in this matter any business classified as a normal restaurant and having servers in revealing costume will be the target of regulation.

One member of the police force emphasized that “regular restaurants that sell food with excessively-exposed servers entertaining guests are clearly going to be the target of regulation.”

However business owner Park retorted the investigation by asking “Is that level of exposure in business disallowed in society’s usual sense of morality?”

In other news, on the 11th the Daegu District Court ruled about a prosecuted bikini bar that “When women workers wait tables while clad in underwear there are two things — exceeding the bounds of lewdness to attract customers’ gaze, and obscene actions” and gave a bikini bar which fell into that category an administrative punishment of a 2-month suspension of business.