South Korea Moves Against Illegal Porn Sites, With EDD and Account Freezes in the Crosshairs

South Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality, the Korea Communications Commission, and the National Police Agency have announced a coordinated response to illegal websites that goes beyond the operators themselves. For high-risk PSPs, the important part is simple: the plan reaches into hosting, advertising, and payment flows, not just content moderation.

1. The authorities say the number of cases involving the production and distribution of pornographic content rose from 2,314 in 2023 to 4,273 in 2025. That is the backdrop for a broader enforcement push, not just isolated site takedowns.
2. Most of the sites place their servers overseas, which makes sanctions harder to apply in practice. To deal with that, investigators have been given the power to hack websites to remove material or collect evidence. If the server location or suspect cannot be identified, those actions will be taken under a court warrant.
3. The plan also extends to the service layer around the sites. Developers are to be held liable alongside content owners, and the government is preparing a legal basis to block ad networks as a main source of illegal revenue.
4. Payments are part of the target set. Under the Financial Transactions Act, enhanced due diligence (EDD) is being strengthened so authorities can suspend accounts used to operate these sites. For PSPs, that means the compliance question is not just “who is the merchant?” but “what is this account actually funding?”
5. South Korea is also expanding cooperation with the FBI in the US and NCMEC to pursue operators outside the country. In parallel, authorities are developing technology to automatically detect mirror sites and block them without review when the similarity is high enough.

For adult processors and other high-risk payment teams, this is a reminder that enforcement is increasingly aimed at the infrastructure layer: accounts, ad monetization, mirrors, and the people building the sites, not only the site operators themselves.