A Queens state Assembly candidate who publishes a Korean-language newspaper is profiting from ads for a prostitution ring on the paper’s back pages, The Post has learned.
Myungsuk Lee, 49, the owner of the Korean American Times, is one of several Democrats vying for an open seat in the newly created 40th District.
He trumpets his accomplishments on the paper’s front pages — while the back pages run ads for massage services that serve as covers for prostitution, sex workers said.
At least two of the racy ads soliciting workers lead back to the same building as Lee’s publishing and campaign offices at Prince Street and 35th Avenue in Flushing.
One ad says it would “prefer ladies who just arrived from Korea,” and another says, “Age is not required if look young.”
Women answering telephones at numbers posted on the ads offered callers hourlong massages for $50 and directed them to the building housing Lee’s offices.
A Post reporter who arrived was offered the full menu — an extra $40 above the massage price gets “hand satisfaction,” an extra $60 gets oral sex, and an additional $80 gets conventional sex.
In an interview with The Post at his office, Lee at first denied that the ads were even in his paper.
But when confronted with the evidence, he quickly admitted to it.
“I told my employee not to have this kind of advertisement. I’m strongly opposed [to] it,” he said.
“I never called it, so I don’t know.
“As a man, I promise . . . if I find this is true, a true prostitute, I will eliminate, I will cancel [the ads],” he said. “I am very pro-advocate for immigrants, immigrants’ rights.”
One prostitute, Janie, 30, who moved from Beijing to Flushing three years ago, said she has worked for tips only at the building for two weeks in order to pay for her language classes.
“I’m a good person,” she said. “I don’t like it. But I have to go to school.”