The Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) agreed to work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) against digital gender-based violence including candid shooting and sexual harassment on social media, the South Korean agency said. KNPA will provide $940,000 as an assistance fund and carry out various projects with UNDP. "Three South Korean police officers from the cybersex crime-related bureau will oversee the partnership program. They will lecture on investigation tactics and how to protect victims," KNPA's assistant inspector Choi Yejina told Aju Korea Daily on October 20.
KNPA will also offer educational programs to improve the capabilities of police forces in partner countries of the international organization in combating technology-based sex crimes. UNDP currently has offices in 170 nations. "We are very happy for KNPA's invaluable and generous sharing of expertise with UNDP," the UN agency's associate administrator Xu Haoliang said in a statement.
"UNDP and KNPA both envision and aim to realize a safer world for all," said KNPA head Yoon Hee-keun. "The Korean Police is happy to share the knowledge and experience gathered with other countries to promote peace, security, and stability."
KNPA's data showed that cybersex crime cases increased to 3,201 in 2022 from 2,698 in 2019. The use of artificial intelligence-based web search systems was popularized in South Korea to stop the distribution of harmful online materials including illegally filmed explicit content. In 2020, South Korea was rattled by the shockingly horrible reality of an online sex crime when operators of a smartphone messenger app channel were arrested for filming and sharing some 2,000 illegally filmed sexual videos of ordinary people including minors.
