The South Korean government has launched a consultative group with the civic sector on the protection of overseas copyright in a bid to better respond to copyright violations involving Korean cultural or Hallyu contents.

Hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the organization will comprise three other ministries - the foreign, justice and industry ministries - as well as eight public agencies and 13 interest groups including the Copyright Overseas Promotion Association.

The consultation body will uncover cases of copyright violation and draft joint counter measures to support the continued growth of the content sector.

The first meeting on Thursday discussed illegal content websites located overseas and ways to crack down on international copyright crimes.

The culture ministry noted that copyright is essential to generating economic value for Korean cultural contents.