Police Crack Down on Over 10,000 Illegal Entertainment Venues... Four Months Since the 4th Wave

Following the government's phased return to normal life, restrictions on business hours and the number of customers have been eased. On one night in Mapo-gu, Hongdae, Seoul, a pub was bustling with customers well past 10 p.m. Photo by Yonhap News.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Since the '4th wave' of COVID-19 in July this year, the police have been conducting large-scale crackdowns on illegal entertainment establishments, with the number of people caught exceeding 10,000 in just four months.

According to the National Police Agency on the 15th, from July 3rd to the 14th of this month, over 19 weeks, 48,419 police officers were deployed to jointly inspect 122,200 entertainment venues nationwide in cooperation with local governments.

During this process, 1,286 cases of illegal activities such as violations of quarantine guidelines were cracked down on, involving 10,093 individuals. By type, there were 907 cases and 9,235 people violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, 67 cases and 496 people violating the Food Sanitation Act, and 312 cases and 362 people violating the Music Industry Act.

In particular, despite the lifting of business restrictions with the phased return to normal life (With Corona) starting on the 1st of this month, 57 cases involving 399 violators were caught within two weeks. On the 12th at around 9:40 p.m., at a karaoke room in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, five people including the owner and employees were caught for illegal operations such as hiring hostesses and selling alcoholic beverages. On the same day in Incheon, six people including the owner of an entertainment bar were caught for operating past the permitted business hours (midnight), turning off the signboard lights, and serving reserved customers until around 2:20 a.m.

The police, anticipating that illegal operations might flourish due to the lifting of the gathering ban on entertainment facilities with the implementation of With Corona, have extended the special crackdown on illegal operations in entertainment establishments until the end of this month. The main targets of the crackdown are ▲ unauthorized (variant) operations ▲ violations of operating hour restrictions ▲ re-opening of violating businesses ▲ other violations of quarantine rules.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.