The classified document dated July states that a journalist and several other South Koreans had a massage in Yanggakdo International Hotel, the largest working hotel and the second tallest building in North Korea. Simon Cockerell, director of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, says it is unrealistic for western tourists to find romance with North Koreans as North Korea places great pride in its national homogeneity and is a deeply conservative culture.
He argues that hooking up with a visiting foreigner would be something a bit shameful and also something quite out of character for almost all the women there. Jeong Yong-soo, a North Korea expert and reporter at the JoongAng Daily, also warns that tourists should not expect to hook up with a North Korean despite allegations of a booming sex trade.
One analyst Martin Sieff, of the Asia Pacific Defense Forum, reports an estimated 25, active prostitutes in North Korea but there is no way to confirm this statistic.
A North Korean defector informed Ha Tae-kyung, a lawmaker of the Saenuri Party and publisher specializing in North Korea, that were approximately prostitutes in their city, which has a population of , Sieff also reports that the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases among North Korean troops is devastating, citing North Korean defectors as sources.
This attitude goes hand in hand with the prevalence of STDs in the country. Women believe opium prevents and even treats almost all forms of disease. The cotton is supposed to absorb all foreign substances, preventing them from entering the body through the womb. Consequently, soldiers try to conceal they have an STD as there are insufficient treatment options available. The US Department of Sate indicates in their Trafficking in Persons Report that North Korea is a source country for women and children who are subjected to sex trafficking.
