The Hanguk Ilbo reports that “Kophinos,” the children of Korean fathers and Filipino mothers, are becoming a social issue in the Philippines and shame to Korea.

In fact, Korean sex tourism to the archipelago is becoming an international disgrace as it leads to a skyrocketing number of unwed mothers and Kophino children, and there is concern it could lead to serious diplomatic problems as well.

The kids have tough lives — left behind by their fathers, who are often students or tourists, most are born to poor single mothers and neglected without receiving proper education. There are no official statistics, but it’s believed that the number of Kophino children has skyrocked recently to 10,000, up from just 1,000 five years ago.

The growing problem is due to the overlap of a sharply growing number of Korean sex tourists and students and the Philippines’ Catholic culture, which views birth control and abortion as sins (as opposed to Korea, which clearly doesn’t). According to the Filipino tourism board, the number of Korean visitors to the islands has quadrupled since 1997, going from 170,000 to 650,000 last year.

This increase is because Filipino authorities have actively promoted the country as a golfing destination, and because the islands are a cheap place to study English. A travel industry official told the Hanguk Ilbo that Thursday and Friday flights to the Philippines are almost sold out, and with the political situation turning to shit in Thailand, the number of people heading to the Philippines is increasing even more.

Korean visitors play golf in the day and hit the red-light districts at night. Mr. A, a so-called “goose dad” (i.e., he works in Korea to support his wife and children, who are studying overseas, usually in North America), comes to the Philippines two or three times a year for three-day, two-night stays. He says for about US$300 a night, you can be treated like a king in the Philippines. He added, “It’s because of the Special Law on Prostitution in Korea.”

Then there are the students who come to learn English — to learn faster, apparently, they often live with local women and even father children before just packing up and returning to Korea. An official with a Korean expat organization said Filipino women don’t ask men to use birth control, and due to Catholicism and the cost, they don’t terminate pregnancies. The official said men who have visited the Philippines have to consider that they may have children in the country.

Due to this behavior, Filipinos are looking less and less kindly towards Koreans. One 26-year-old woman who lives in Manila told the Hanguk Ilbo, “Koreans who think they can buy a person’s feelings with money are really barbarians.”

Ouch.

Then there’s the dastardly Yomiuri Shimbun of Japan, which, in an article entitled “Skyrocketing Kophinos,” furtively mocked and criticized Korean men.

Double ouch.

You’ve even had local gangs — with the participation of Koreans — using promises of local women as bait to lure a kidnap victim, leading to a joint investigation (reported in the Korea Times here).

Expats and Korean welfare organizations are operating two nursery and kindergarten facilities in the country as well as forming measures to deal with the problem. Kim Hyeon-su, the director of a local Korean expat welfare body, said the Kophinos are the “love children of the Korean Wave,” and that Korea, which had a similar experience in the past, was making the same mistake and would pay a high price for it later.