The government said it will ban foreign nationals engaged in sex trade activities involving Korean women from entering the country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it prohibited a 50-year-old Korean-Australian, who has been advertising the sex trade on a Korean information leaflet in Australia, from entering Korea on Tuesday.

It is the first time that the government imposed an entry ban on a foreign national for this reason.

Korean immigration law allows the government to prohibit entry into the country of people deemed to threaten the local economic or social order.

A foreign ministry official said Koreans living in Australia have strongly protested the sex trade advertisement. The ministry has repeatedly asked the man to remove the advertisement but he refused, the official said.

“Sex traders involving Korean women tend to frequently enter Korea to contact brokers and buy Korean women. The entry ban will be effective in cracking down on them,” the official was quoted by Yonhap News as saying.

According to the Korean Embassy in Australia, about 1,000 Korean women are engaged in the sex trade there, most of them staying on working-holiday visas.

Korea and Australia last month agreed to seek joint measures to crack down on prostitution.

The Korean Embassy in Australia opened a 24-hour call center at 1300-856-732 to receive reports on prostitution by Korean women.

The Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry are considering dispatching a prosecutor to the Korean Embassy in Australia next year to provide legal consultations for Korean women involved in prostitution.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)