War on sex crimes escalates

Man arrested for handing out fliers for prostitution

Police said Wednesday they have apprehended a 49-year-old man for handing out leaflets that featured naked women in a Busan district to attract male clients for prostitutes.

This is the first time that police have detained a person for distributing such fliers.

The man, whose name wasn’t disclosed, allegedly distributed some 300 fliers in front of motels to arrange sex. The flier featured naked women and a phone number, police said.

A day earlier, the prosecution indicted five people for keeping child pornography on their computers after downloading it from peer-to-peer file sharing websites. It is also investigating some 60 other people for distributing child porn images on the Internet.

“The suspects include college students, male nurses and employees of conglomerates,” a prosecutor told reporters. “One of them shared more than 2,000 child porn movies with other users.”

It’s also the first time that child porn holders have been indicted since a related law took effect in 2008. Producing, distributing and keeping such content are strictly banned under the law, and violators could face up to seven years in prison. The government is now considering raising the maximum jail terms for such violators to 20 years.

The measures came as the prosecution is stepping up a war against sex crimes. On Monday, police launched a crackdown on producers, distributors and holders of child pornography in an effort to counter the rising number of sexual assaults against minors.

The National Police Agency set up a special team to investigate hundreds of peer-to-peer websites and Internet servers that have been distributing such images. Those who download and upload child porn and keep it on computers or USB memory sticks will face prosecution.

Prosecutors view child pornography as the root cause of the increasing sex offenses.

Ko Jong-seok, who was arrested last week for raping a 7-year-old girl after abducting her from her home in Naju, South Jeolla Province, admitted to having frequently watched child porn videos. Kim Jeom-deok, who allegedly killed a 10-year-old schoolgirl in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, last month, had kept hundreds of video clips of child pornography on his computer.

Kim Soo-chul, who is on trial for raping a girl at an elementary school in Seoul in 2010, also told investigators that he enjoyed child porn for hours before he committed the crime.

The prosecution plans to demand much heavier jail terms for murderers and sex offenders, reflecting growing public concern about crimes against minors and women. <The Korea Times/Na Jeong-ju>

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