"Hijab-Wearing Foreign Tourists Enter Women's Bath, Photograph Naked People... Smile Even After Police Arrive"

Four foreign tourists took photos inside the bathing area
"You must have been really surprised?"... Police response also sparks controversy

Police were called after foreign tourists wearing hijabs took photos with their mobile phones inside a bathing area at a famous jjimjilbang in Haeundae, Busan, where people were bathing undressed.

A group of foreigners who filmed the inside of a bathhouse in Busan with their mobile phones talk with police. Screenshot from Threads @hanyoritta.

On Nov. 10, a woman posted on the social media platform Threads about an upsetting incident she said she experienced at a jjimjilbang in Haeundae, Busan. “I just went to a sauna spa and called the police,” she began.

She said that as she was leaving the women’s bath after washing, she saw a group of foreign nationals wearing hijabs and sunglasses enter the bathing area and take photos. Shocked, she quickly rinsed herself off, got dressed, went to the counter to report what she had seen, and called the police.

There were four foreign nationals taking photos inside the bathing area. The woman and a jjimjilbang employee found them and brought them to the lobby, where she asked them to delete all the photos taken inside the bathhouse while they waited for the police to arrive. However, she said one person in the group who spoke a little Korean denied taking photos and objected to having their phone checked.

“They kept insisting they hadn’t done it, but when the police arrived and searched the phone, they found photos taken inside the bathing area,” the woman said. “Fortunately, there weren’t any photos clearly showing other people naked, but I felt so upset and frightened.”

The woman also said the police response was a serious problem. “The police sat the foreign nationals down and kindly said, ‘You must have been really surprised. You can’t take photos inside the bathing area.’ At that moment, they were sitting side by side and smiling, as if they didn’t understand the seriousness of what they had done,” she recalled.

“They came into the bathing area wearing hijabs, all kinds of clothes wrapped tightly around their bodies, and even sunglasses, dressed just as they were in the photos, and took pictures of people who were naked,” the woman said. “I’m still furious. I don’t think I’ll be able to go to a jjimjilbang again.”

She added that she later filed a report about the incident with e-People, the government’s online petition and complaint portal. She also said the foreign nationals were identified as Malaysian through police checks of their passports and other procedures.

People who read her account responded, saying, “I’d be stunned if I faced something like this,” “Crack down thoroughly on crimes committed by foreign nationals in Korea,” and “Bathhouses are places where other people’s bodies and privacy must be protected.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.