South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Police Agency said on Tuesday they plan to invest more than 13 billion won over three years to push ahead with a project to develop an integrated narcotics investigation system linking dark web and virtual asset transaction tracing.

The project aims to develop an advanced technology-based integrated system to respond to online drug distribution crimes that exploit the anonymity of the dark web and virtual assets. The plan is to develop a system that can integrate, manage and conduct linked analysis of information gathered through dark web de-anonymisation, tracing virtual assets linked to illegal drug crime proceeds, and drug advertisement monitoring technology.

Dark web de-anonymisation technology will analyse data flows within anonymous networks that have been difficult to track to identify real access information of writers or distributors of illegal posts. The agencies will also develop tracing technology that collects and analyses virtual asset transactions to identify illegal fund flows and transaction patterns used in drug deals.

They will also develop technology that automatically collects drug advertisements distributed on the dark web and social media and can identify and analyse them. The goal is to use artificial intelligence-based detection of slang and expression patterns used in drug ads and disguised advertising formats, and to analyse the routes through which ads spread.

A call for applications to select new tasks this year will run until March 3. Details can be found on the websites of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the National Police Agency and the Science Policing Promotion Center.

Oh Dae-hyun (오대현), director general for future strategic technology policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said securing advanced analysis technology is essential to respond to new drug crimes that combine anonymous environments such as the dark web and Telegram with virtual assets. He said the ministry will continue to strengthen the foundation for responding to new types of crime through science and technology.