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S. Korea Gov't Vows Global Crackdown on Webtoon Piracy, Targets Newtoki Operator
posted on by Wonhee Cho
South Korea's Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) Hwi-young Chae pledged on May 28 to pursue copyright offenders “to the very end,” vowing to track and apprehend perpetrators of webtoon piracy regardless of their location or nationality.
Speaking at a policy advisory meeting on the webtoon industry in Seoul, Chae specifically addressed the operator of the illegal webtoon site Newtoki, who reportedly renounced Korean citizenship and became a naturalized Japanese citizen. “We will pursue this to the end,” Chae said, emphasizing that turning a blind eye to such crimes would be a failure of government responsibility.
Newtoki has long been considered one of the largest illegal webtoon distribution platforms, and industry creators have called on the Japanese government to cooperate in extraditing the operator. However, progress has been limited, as cross-border investigations require coordination with Japanese authorities.
Chae also acknowledged the limitations of South Korea's recently implemented emergency site-blocking system, which allows authorities to quickly restrict access to piracy websites. While the measure has led to a surge in legitimate platform users — including services like Naver Webtoon — Chae noted that illegal sites continue to evade enforcement by relocating servers and changing domains.
“New technologies are being used for copyright infringement, making enforcement increasingly difficult,” Chae said, adding that while completely eradicating piracy may be unrealistic, the government will continue to pursue offenders through all available means.
Newtoki abruptly shut down on April 27 just before the implementation of the emergency site-blocking system, but a site branded as Newtoki reappeared a day later.
Beyond enforcement, Chae highlighted plans to expand support for the global growth of Korean webtoons and to introduce measures to assist emerging creators, particularly as AI becomes more widely used in content production.
Source: Newsis (Joo-hee Kim)
