Police Conduct Undercover Investigations for 1 Year... 179 Minors' Sexual Exploitation Material Distributors Arrested

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters (NIH) announced on the 22nd that from September last year, when the undercover investigation system under the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles against Sexual Abuse was implemented, a total of 183 undercover investigations were conducted over one year until August this year, resulting in the arrest of 261 individuals, of whom 22 were detained.

Under current law, undercover investigations can only be used in digital sex crime investigations involving children and adolescents. The police actively conducted undercover operations targeting the sale, distribution, and advertisement of child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials, with this category accounting for 179 individuals, or 68.5% of all arrests. Additionally, 73 people who possessed or viewed child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials were also arrested through undercover investigations.

Undercover investigations are divided into 'identity disguise investigations,' where officers disguise themselves using documents or electronic records to conceal their police identity, and 'identity non-disclosure investigations,' where the officer's identity is not revealed. Unlike identity disguise investigations, which require court approval for each case, identity non-disclosure investigations are initiated through internal police approval procedures, with related materials reported to the National Police Commission (NPC) and the National Assembly.

The NIH stated that it complied with control procedures by submitting related materials to the NPC upon the conclusion of identity non-disclosure investigations and to the National Assembly in January and July. Following the first half of the year, the NIH also formed an 'Undercover Investigation Inspection Team' for the second half, which inspected police stations conducting undercover investigations from the 30th of last month to the 16th of this month to check for any illegal or abusive practices during investigations.

The NIH plans to establish undercover investigations as a common investigative technique in the field by selecting and training new undercover investigators, providing advanced training for existing undercover investigators, and sharing excellent investigative cases and various investigative techniques.

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