During the 1970s, when South Korea was governed by hardline authoritarian decree, government agents armed with rulers prowled the streets measuring skirt lengths in search of violators of the country's indecency laws.

Police could even arrest women for their choice of fashion if it were deemed to risqué. That same indecency law exists today, if only on the books, as police have long surrendered their pursuits of arresting women in miniskirts and daisy-dukes short-shorts. Nevertheless, the South Korean government is in the process of revising the law to match the fashion motifs of the day.

Miniskirts are as common as kimchi (preserved vegetables) in South Korea today.

"The law for excessive exposure does not match our current society," said Kim Jae-kwang, an official with a South Korean think-tank.

The laws stayed on the books after South Korea transitioned to a more democratic government in the 1980s but have not been strictly enforced in decades.