For your reference, the Republic of Korea became a signatory to the UN Protocol on December 13, 2000 but is yet to ratify it. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Human Trafficking in especially Women and Children Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime which was adopted in the UN General Assembly in November 2000 provide such broad definition of the human trafficking as ‘the recruitment, transportation, transfer,harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation’. 1. Unique features of human trafficking for sexual exploitation in the Korean society There are distinctive features of human trafficking. Most prominent in the Korean society includes female victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and migrant women from Southeast Asian countries who entered the country through international marriages suspected to be transactional marriages. There is a long history of prostitution in Korea. A combination of multiple reasons contributed to its development. They include: advanced internet infrastructure, deep-rooted entertainment culture, alliance between businesses and political powers and the endowment of rights and interests, patriarch and dualistic moral system, vertical and military-oriented culture throughout the society, US military stationed in Korea and ensuing development of sex industry and poor social status of women. Women’s movement in Korea started in full swing from the 1970s and it led to legislation against three major types of violence against women –domestic violence, sexual violence and prostitution. Majority of the legislations on violence against women is the result of higher education level and active women’s movement since 1990s. With the establishment of the Act on the Prevention of Sexual Traffic and Protection, Etc. of Victims Thereof in 2004, efforts have been made by both civil and public agencies to bring the victims of sexual exploitation who have Korean nationality and have been put into the domestic sex industry out of their exploitive situation and assist their social integration through about 100 counseling centers, shelters, and rehabilitation centers. However migrant women who recently came to the Korean society, namely those from China, the Philippines 32 ❙ Seoul International Conference Against Human Trafficking in Migrant Women