The number of options available for readers is shrinking dramatically as three more of the largest manga and webtoon websites have been shut down.
According to a report by TorrentFreak, Harimanga, Manhwaclan and Kunmanga were taken down following coordinated action by Korean and Vietnamese authorities. The platforms originally went offline in late May. While the reason for their sudden disappearance was initially unknown to the public, it has now been revealed that the platforms’ operators were arrested following a long enforcement operation spearheaded by Naver Webtoon.
These three piracy platforms hosted approximately 14,700 titles, including webtoons, manhwa and manga translated to English for readers in the United States and Europe. Prior to their shutdown, the platforms collectively attracted over 1.1 billion user visits annually. This enforcement action closely follows the closure of Newtoki and its affiliate websites, previously recognized as Korea’s largest manhwa piracy network.
WEBTOON Officially Shuts Down Harimanga, Manhwaclan and Kunmanga for Good
Harimanga, Manhwaclan and Kunmanga had been on Naver Webtoon’s watchlist since at least 2023, when the publisher named the domains in a DMCA subpoena sent to Cloudflare. The publisher has now revealed that it had been tracking the platforms using its own open-source intelligence analysis, securing evidence necessary for enforcement, including operational status, indications of copyright infringement and data on damages caused.
Through this investigation, it was determined that all three websites were run by a married couple in Vietnam who had operated the network since January 2023. This gathered intelligence was handed over to Vietnamese authorities, who subsequently located the couple on May 19 and seized the servers by May 22 to halt all operations.
The enforcement operation was executed under the Korea-Vietnam Copyright Protection Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed in November 2025 between the two countries. Vietnam has been earmarked by the United States as a major hub for piracy in an official report.
Naver Webtoon Chief Rights Officer Kim Kyu-nam emphasized the significance of the operation, stating that it led to the actual takedown of platforms engaging in large-scale illegal distribution. “We will continue to strengthen cooperation with investigative agencies and relevant organizations in various countries to protect the rights of creators and the value of their works,” Kim stated.
Korean authorities are currently working to extradite the couple to face trial in South Korea, where the content industry estimated the total damages from the three platforms at 207.2 billion won, or approximately US$136 million.
South Korea has aggressively targeted webtoon and manhwa piracy websites, pinpointing copyright infringement as a primary obstacle to the global expansion of its content market. Alongside Newtoki and the newly shuttered domains, Korean authorities and piracy watchdogs also collaborated to shut down TuMangaOnline and its affiliate platforms earlier this year.
Korean publishers were also actively involved in taking actions against Bato.to and MangaDex, two of the largest illegal manga distribution websites, to disrupt the manga piracy ecosystem.
