1,666 arrested in two-month crackdown that seized W19.5b in prostitution proceeds

Police arrested 1,666 people across 761 cases during a two-month special crackdown on prostitution that ran from June 1 through July 31, a 24 percent increase from the same period last year. The operation also uncovered cases in which minors were lured into sexual exploitation online and foreign women were stripped of their passports and forced into prostitution.

The Korean National Police Agency announced the results Monday, saying the crackdown went beyond one-off arrests to focus on dismantling the organizational structures behind prostitution networks and cutting off their criminal proceeds. The agency attributed the sharp rise in arrests to close cooperation with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and local governments.

During the operation, police arrested 17 men who had used X, formerly Twitter, to approach minors under 18 and solicit them for sex. Investigators monitoring various SNS platforms and messaging apps detected signs of criminal activity and identified the suspects through financial warrants and closed-circuit television footage. Victims were referred to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family for treatment and support.

Police also broke up a ring that confiscated foreign women's passports, photographed them in the nude and used the images to threaten, confine and coerce them into prostitution. Authorities arrested 60 people including brothel operators and brokers, detaining two. Acting on intelligence about sexual exploitation targeting foreign women, investigators obtained search, communications and arrest warrants to track down the operators and clients. The ring's criminal proceeds of about 700 million won ($493,000) were recovered in full. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is providing protection and treatment support to the victims.

As part of a broader push to strengthen prostitution enforcement nationwide, police expanded their investigation teams by 40 officers earlier this year and established new units in Gangwon Province and Jeju. To cut off the supply of prostitution at the source, they widened crackdowns on building owners who provide venues and stepped up monitoring of online solicitation. Police also aggressively pursued pre-indictment asset preservation orders to strip offenders of criminal proceeds.

As a result, police uncovered 50 cases of corporate-scale prostitution operations, a sharp increase from 10 cases detected last year. They also arrested 25 building owners who had provided premises for prostitution and shut down 11 prostitution solicitation websites. Police applied for pre-indictment asset preservation orders covering 19.5 billion won in prostitution-related criminal proceeds and notified the National Tax Service of 70 billion won in taxable data.

Lee Seung-hyeop, director of the Korean National Police Agency's Crime Prevention and Response Bureau, said the results reflected "a strong determination to dismantle the core structures of prostitution networks and recover every won of illegal proceeds," adding that police would continue aggressive enforcement and investigations to eradicate prostitution.