Beauty pageant contestants flee Korea alleging corruption, sexual harassment.

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The BBC reports on a 19-year-old model upset with her treatment at the Miss Asia Pacific World contest this month in three Korean cities.

A triple-crowned beauty queen from Bristol has claimed she had to leave a competition in South Korea because she feared for her safety.

Amy Willerton, 19, the title holder of Miss Bath, Miss Bristol and Ms Wales University competed in Miss Asia Pacific World earlier this month.

But she alleged competitors were sexually harassed and bribed and were not provided with food.

A Daily Mail article explains further:

[T]hings went wrong from the moment she stepped off the plane in Seoul on 3 October when organisers refused to pay for her £600 flight as promised.

She was then horrified to discover her hotel room did not even have a bed.

Amy, who is single, said: 'There was just a blanket on the floor. I put up with it for two nights but then complained and they moved me to another hotel.

'The next thing I knew we weren't being fed - they only gave us one meal per day. They would say things like 'we cannot give you lunch because we haven't been paid for it'.'

After three days in Seoul, the group of 50 beauties were taken to the city of Daegu for the next stage of the competition.

By this time allegations of corruption and bribery were sweeping around the models and several had complained of being sexually assaulted and harassed.

The final straw came when an optional 'talent' round was won by Miss Venezuela - who had not even entered that section of the competition.

The controversy with Miss Venezuela and the attempt by three others to leave the competition can be seen in a video uploaded by Miss Guyana on the 15th:



The discussions continue in the videos that bookend that one. The messageboard on the Miss Asia Pacific website has had a recent spike in traffic. A couple examples under the section unfortunately titled "press releases":

i am suspicous that you are korean gansters, who want to abuse the contestants sexually. 너�들 조��력배지? 참가�들� 성�력하려하는... 경찰� �놈들� 다잡아 �옥� 넣어야한다. 국가명예 ��죄로... �러운 놈들...

and

세계�들� 불러놓고 방값�못내서 ㅉㅉ.....
모하�는 단체�지 ..결혼정보회사�서 �벤트연것�요? ㅉㅉ

Please see this post on Critical Beauty for much more information and details.

If the allegations are true, it's as much about perverted and corrupt officials as it is about organizers in way over their heads, like when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education would house its foreign English teachers at Dongdaemun Stadium. I was going to say that hotel rooms without beds, for example, are not uncommon: check out any motel or any mid-range tourist hotel, and you'll find these "Korean-style" rooms. Now I was going to simply write that looking at the "official hotels" for the pageant, Seoul's Imperial Palace does not have an ondol room, but two other of the other three on the tour---the Aqua Palace in Busan and the Hotel Inter-burgo in Daegu---do. But Amy has posted two photos (1, 2) of her first two hotels, and clearly they didn't get what's advertised. Indeed, an email by the organizer to the directors who sent contestants, as quoted on Critical Beauty says exactly that; here he is outlining how the festival "was totally destroyed":

2. Seoul Committee blocked 30 twins to Hotel Imperial Palace, but they did not pay until 1 week delegates’ arrival, disappeared, accordingly cancelled. At the same cancelled day, i called hotel, but no rooms due to peak season, i find only 10 rooms. From that day, we tried to find hotels all over Seoul, i found only suit rooms at Hotel Intercontinental, and the price per room was USD1, 000 per suite room. We could not accommodate with this price, and divided Imperial Palace and Resort that makes a lot of complaints.

3. Daegu Committee blocked 30 twins at Hotel Interbulgo for 6 nights and conducted Talent Competition jointly National Costume. They did not pay production fee, hence no rehearsal, the Show was delayed. I paid production fee, the show started after 1 hour than scheduled time. The result was terrible, mess, no judgement to award. For example, Miss Puerto Rico get award for Europe Award, Miss Venezuela was a model for Miss Estonia’s talent fashion show, she award Talent… All delegates angry and upset as they prepared a lot for Talent, that is Super Talent Competition. When the girls were check out hotel on Oct 13th, to travel Busan where world final held, i knew the Daegu Committee did not pay hotel. They promised to pay hotel until 11 AM, but delayed, delayed, the first group 35 girls departed to Busan, the other 15 girls could leave 4PM, after i paid USD30,000 for hotel and banquet dinner for Oct 11th Competition. 1 delegate went to her home country, 2 delegate called me to pay 20,000 usd each, then stay here to world final, the reason was due to lack of service and professionalism, but i could not promise the fund right away, the 2 girls went to home on Oct 13th.

Wikipedia says the Korean "winner" has resigned, and according to the email reprinted by Critical Beauty, the organizer Choi has a list of people to blame:

I will accuse on the following people

Chief Seoul Committee Mr. Lee, Jin Hwan.

Chief Daegu Committee Mr. Keum, Beop Il.

Chief Busan Committee Mr. Jung, Weon Young

I left out the addresses, cellphone numbers, and emails of those three, but Critical Beauty has them if you're interested.