Prissy Western reporters question official about Korea's "late-night entertainment culture"

Should government interfere in legal "business entertainment culture"? Are Korea's "late-night entertainment culture" hostile to working women?

We're not sure, but a few questions asked to Korea's finance minister by Western reporters seems to suggest that that might be the case. And the implicit admonition appears to be that the Korean government should somehow get on top of the problem.

But of course, whether business executives choose to visit "room salons", "geisha bars" or the "Mustang Ranch" is arguably up to them and prissy reporters should know better than to suggest that government take steps to limit freedom of action. Surely, if freedom of speech is sacrosanct to journalists and indeed to a free society, they remain hollow privileges without concomitant freedom of action.

According to the Korea Times, "Foreign correspondents put the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in hot water during a press conference Monday in which Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun was asked 'humiliating' questions about late-night entertainment culture in Korea.

"Evan Ramstad of The Wall Street Journal asked Yoon whether it was difficult for Korean women to be hired as executives of major business groups because male executives enjoy room salons and would not be able to visit them if their colleagues were women."

Yoon, replying that many women participate in business and also citing that more than half of new prosecutors and judges are women, Ramstad followed up his question asking whether "finance ministry officials were treated to lavish entertainment at room salons by businessmen."

Yoon flatly denied the charges, said the Korea Times, saying that ministry officials were guided by a strict code of conduct.

Then a CBS reporter named Don Kirk said "executives and employees of Korea's large businesses group were the main customers of room salons, insisting the government should bar companies from deducting such expenses from their taxable income."

But minister Yoon explained that like all entertainment expenses, there are limits on how much entertainment related expenditures businesses can reasonably deduct. So in the end, at least from a taxation point of view, it's not something to really worry about.

One senior ministry official who asked not to be identified said the reporters were asking "silly" questions on purpose to publicly "humiliate" Yoon. Possibly, but Ramstad "rejected the accusation. He explained to the Korea Times that he "asked the top government economic policymaker about employment conditions for women because Monday was International Women's Day," the Korea Times said.

"Statistics show that Korea has the lowest female employment and widest pay gap between genders among OECD countries," said Ramstad. And it could be, he seems to suggest, that "the male-only room salon culture was a factor in the low female economic population," the paper said.

But surely, whether it is or isn't, it's arguably nothing the government should interfere with, though the topic may make for interesting sociological and anthropological study. Unless women are being coerced or forced to work in room salons and strip bars, certainly, it's their decision to do so as fully equal and qualified members of society.

UPDATE - Ramstad swears at officials, a second time

The Korea Times reports that the Finance Ministry will "stop providing press releases to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and send a protest letter to the newspaper's headquarters in New York to protest the behavior of its Seoul correspondent." The announcement came Tuesday.

"We will officially protest Ramstad's use of vulgar English words by sending a protest letter to the head of the Wall Street Journal in the U.S., not because of his questions during a Q&A session at the press conference. The point is that he verbally insulted ministry spokesman Park Cheol-kyu, using the 'F' word after the session," said Kim Young-min, the spokesman for foreign media at the finance ministry.

Park and Ramstad reportedly had an argument over whether the latter's questions were appropriate or not, the Korea Times said.

Kim said Ramstad sent a written apology for swearing Monday night, but the spokesman said the letter "lacked sincerity", adding that it was not the first time Ramstad swore at ministry officials.

"Last August, the reporter said the 'F' word to me during a phone conversation. As a ministry spokesman, I sent a protest letter to the WSJ headquarters. Ramstad then wrote me an apology, pledging not to use vulgar words again. But he broke his promise Monday, swearing at the senior ministry official. Under the circumstances, we have no other choice but to question the sincerity of his apology," Kim said.