Turks steamed up over bathhouse brothels

Turkey is steamed up over Korean bathhouses known as 'Turkish baths', which commonly serve as fronts for brothels.

The Government has taken the protest to heart and will change the legal term to something more appropriate, such as 'steam bath'.

The baths are known for their massage girls who provide personal services in small segregated rooms equipped with beds.

Women and civic interest groups have long criticised the baths for harbouring prostitution.

'Turkish baths in Turkey are public baths, but they are never mixed,' protested Derya Dingiltepe, charge d'affaires at the country's embassy in Seoul.

'They are large bathhouses in marble and are architecturally beautiful,' she said.