The Ministry of Information and Communication said Thursday that following the January 19 implementation of a law governing the sending of pornographic advertisements through the Internet to cellular phones, it will mount an intensive 20-day investigation into sites sending illegal messages from January 20.

The law, passed in December is designed to protect teenagers from pornographic spam, while promoting information communication network use and information protection.

The ministry plans to concentrate its investigation on illegal spam mail sent to regulators or were reported to the spam mail report center at www.spamcop.or.kr. The site is run by the Personal Information Violation Report Center.

The ministry's Information Communications Ethics Committee will cooperate with prosecutors and the police to find pornographic sites that send spam mail, which will be shut down, and file appropriate charges against the operators.