SEOUL, Jul. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Moving forward, South Korean law enforcement agencies will be treating hidden camera crimes as cyber terrorism.

This new designation applies not only to those who capture the illicit footage, but also those who distribute such materials.

The National Police Agency said that it was adding 159 police investigators currently in charge of cyber terror to a team tapped to crack down on illegal filming.

These hardline investigators will be investigating hidden camera crimes in association with the cyber sexual violence investigation team at each local municipality office.

The investigators will initially be looking into illegal porn websites that were reported by the public to civic groups, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Korea Communications Standards Commission and other government entities.

At present, the police have cracked down on 860 websites that feature illegal footage obtained without the consent of those featured in the videos.

The illegal video clips will be deleted and the websites blocked in real-time through the use of a joint system created by the Korea Communication Standards Commission and the police.

If video clips continue to be distributed regardless, support will be provided by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in deleting clips and blocking relevant websites.

In addition, police officials are in the midst of developing a tracking system that automatically detects illegal video clips that are distributed on porn sites, social media websites and file-sharing sites with the goal of launching the system by October.

Police are also seeking cooperation from U.S. authorities in the attempt to crack down on illegal porn websites that have set up servers overseas to avoid being detected.

H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)