Prosecutors have indicted and put under pretrial detention the operator of "Noonoo TV," an illegal website that provides over-the-top(OTT) contents of domestic streaming services with servers in the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and other foreign countries.

According to the culture ministry and its investigation team on Monday, the first hearing in the trial against the illegal website operator is set to be held at the Daejeon District Court on January 6.

The investigation team apprehended the operator last month, in coordination with the prosecution, police, the National Intelligence Service(NIS), as well as the Korea branch of the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and Interpol.

The team confiscated related domains and blocked access to Noonoo TV and other illegal webtoon sites run by the same operator, while also seizing two luxury vehicles, a watch, and virtual assets as proceeds of a crime.

Launched in 2021, Noonoo TV has disrupted the local streaming ecosystem by illegally providing domestic and overseas movie, drama and animation contents for free.