By Bahk Eun-ji

A sex workers’ group wants the law banning prostitution abolished.

Around 1,000 members of the Hanteo National Union, the Korean sex workers’ organization, rallied in Jongno, Seoul, Wednesday to condemn the law for threatening their right to make a living selling sex.

“Sex workers are persecuted minorities and the current law has threatened their livelihood,” they said.

The protesters also referred to an Amnesty International decision on the sex trade.

At a meeting of its international council in Ireland on Aug. 11, the rights organization concluded that decriminalization is the best way to protect sex workers. It also said people who sell sex are adults who have the freedom to do whatever they want, and the state’s crackdown on consensual sexual activity is a violation of human rights.

The Hanteo union insists the sex workers have a right to operate their businesses within the law, and the government should take action on businesses such as massage parlors that provide illicit sexual services.

“Because the government cracks down on sex workers and the business operators making their livelihood, variant perverse sex service operators have increased,” a union spokesperson said.