Major porn site operator arrested, 3 still on loose

Justice looms closer for those responsible for Korea's once-largest porn site “Soranet” after one of the four suspects who have been living overseas recently surrendered herself to police. Korea Times file

By Ko Dong-hwan

Police have arrested the co-operators of the now-closed major Korean porn site “Soranet,” leaving three other suspects on the loose overseas.

The Provincial Police Agency said Monday it arrested the unnamed woman, 45, who surrendered to them after living as a fugitive overseas. She ran the site with her husband and another married couple. It had over a million subscribers.

The female suspect returned to Seoul after police asked the foreign ministry to cancel her passport. She voluntarily returned to Incheon International Airport on June 18.

Soranet was launched in 1999 and closed in April 2016, when police discovered the site's server in the Netherlands and it was destroyed. Two months later, the site's Twitter account notified of its permanent closure.

The police investigation began in 2015. Two of the site's operators, who were in Korea, were arrested the following year. The other operators remained outside the country to avoid police, using permanent residency status in Indonesia, Australia and the Netherlands.

They kept operating the site, hiding information about their identities and using aliases.

Soranet evolved into Korea's largest porn site in 2003 after a major facelift increased the amount of adult content.

The three suspects living overseas are known to be from renowned universities in Korea, including Seoul National University and Dongguk University.