Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Operator of websites sharing child pornography arrested in Korea
This photo, released on Monday by police, shows police officers, right, apprehending a man as he arrives at Incheon International Airport on charges of operating 14 sites dedicated to sharing sexually abusive materials, including videos of minors. Courtesy of Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency
By Jung Min-ho
A man has been arrested on charges of operating 14 sites dedicated to sharing sexually abusive materials, including videos of minors, police said on Monday.
According to the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency, the suspect in his 20s is expected to stand trial for running the overseas-based illegal sites between November 2020 and May of this year. Of 100,000 videos released on those sites, police said they have identified 200 victims so far, including children.
The man, a U.S. Green Card holder living in California, was apprehended recently at Incheon International Airport on his way to the U.S. after visiting the Philippines. By then, Korean police had secured his itinerary, thanks to collaboration with U.S. Homeland Security officials. He was detained at the airport during his stopover there.
According to police, he allegedly received payments in cryptocurrency from advertisers to promote their businesses — including gambling enterprises — on his sites, where visitors had free access to explicit videos he had collected from the dark web and other platforms such as Telegram, a messaging app that is popular among privacy-conscious people.
After his arrest, police said they shut down the sites while seeking to seize all proceeds of crime.
Police said digital sex crimes could devastate the lives of the victims, vowing to “pursue such criminals all the way” no matter where they operate.