The move comes after the National Police Agency (NPA) in September announced a series of preventive measures to better cope with violent sex crimes that have unnerved the country.
A total of 101 police stations out of 249 nationwide have expanded their organization and set up new departments that only focus on managing sex offenders and protecting victims, the NPA said.
"Police officers in regional and local offices previously carried out (preventing sex crimes) with other works," an NPA officer said. "Thus, in many times, (the task) was a mere formality,"
"With the launch of the department, (the officers) will be able to more professionally and systemically supervise convicted sex criminals," the officer said.
A task force team within the NPA was also newly set up to deal with protecting victims of the sex crimes, he added.
In a move to better monitor convicted sex offenders prone to recidivism, the NPA previously increased the number of police and probation officers by 528 in charge of overseeing them. (Yonhap)