South Koreans jailed over prostitution tour operation

Two South Korean citizens have been respectively sentenced to five and three years in jail for being involved in prostitution in Northeast China through a website, a court in Dalian, Liaoning province said Thursday.

Kim, from Seoul, was found to have opened a website named "Embarking on Dalian tour" in 2009, which clearly listed prices for travel, massage, KTV and sexual services. Since then, he brought South Korean men to China on multiple occasions to engage in prostitution in Dalian, the court said.

Kim was sentenced to five years in jail with a fine of 100,000 yuan ($16,441).

The accomplice, revealed only as Kim Xfen, was hired by Kim as a tour guide and was paid 4,000 yuan a month. The normal tour included tourist sites, night clubs and then prostitutes. Kim Xfen was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 50,000 yuan.

The two appealed to the higher court in Liaoning, which upheld the original ruling.