The government and telecommunications operators reviewed their response to illegal spam and agreed to strengthen blocking ahead of the Chuseok holiday in September.

The Korea Communications Commission and the Ministry of Science and ICT said they held the sixth plenary meeting of the public-private consultative body on illegal spam response in Seoul on Thursday. They discussed progress on a comprehensive plan to prevent illegal spam and future policy measures.

The meeting was jointly hosted by the Korea Communications Commission and the Ministry of Science and ICT and organised by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). About 50 people attended, including related agencies such as the Personal Information Protection Commission and the National Police Agency, as well as telecommunications operators such as SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus and Samsung Electronics.

Participants reviewed progress on five strategies and 12 detailed tasks under the comprehensive plan to prevent illegal spam that has been pursued since late 2024. They discussed response measures reflecting recent changes in the environment.

The Korea Communications Commission shared key contents of the Enforcement Decree of the Information and Communications Network Act and related notices. It asked operators to participate in disclosing spam report status, sharing sending numbers used for illegal spam and strengthening spam filtering using AI.

The Ministry of Science and ICT will push to apply an invalid-number blocking system for illegal spam that blocks bulk text messages sent from invalid numbers and improve blocking of spam sent from overseas through cooperation with foreign text message businesses. It urged domestic and international text message relay companies to strengthen management and oversight of customers who send bulk text messages.

The three mobile carriers and Kakao agreed to strengthen user alerts and blocking related to illegal spam ahead of the Chuseok holiday in September.

Shin Young-gyu (신영규), director general of the Broadcasting and Communications User Policy Bureau at the Korea Communications Commission, said it would swiftly complete improvements to related systems so the public can use digital media services safely without worrying about illegal spam. He also asked the three mobile carriers and handset makers to make greater efforts to detect and block illegal spam using AI technology.

Nam Seok (남석), director general for telecommunications policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said illegal spam is a key channel for livelihood crimes that cause financial 피해 to the public, including voice phishing and smishing. He said the ministry would work to eradicate illegal spam through the invalid-number blocking system and improvements in blocking overseas spam.

The public-private consultative body on illegal spam response was launched in December 2024 to coordinate responses between the government and private businesses.