July 22, 2011
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean police said Friday they had arrested six people for hiring female North Korean refugees and ethnic Koreans in China to run sex websites frequented by hundreds of thousands of clients.
Police in the southern city of Busan said the six had recruited 500 refugees and 500 ethnic Koreans in China to operate 70 sites, offering sex talk or nude shows, starting in April 2007.
Police said 34 others were not detained but would stand trial on similar charges.
"No legal steps have been taken to punish those who have visited the websites," Jo Je-Cheol, a cyber crime investigator in Busan, told AFP.
The six key operators allegedly earned 22.3 billion won ($21.2 million) in profits over four years. But the women, mostly from China's northeastern city of Yanji, were paid only nine percent of the profits, he said.
The websites had 700,000 registered members in South Korea who paid up to 800 won every 30 seconds for obscene chat and up to 10,000 won for a nude show, he said.
"Sex chat websites have been flourishing. We need tougher rules to eradicate such sites," Jo said.
South Korea's telecommunication law bans online distribution of pornographic material. Violators face a maximum prison sentence of one year.
