An image of a model displaying mobile licenses. (LG Uplus)
South Korea will begin issuing mobile national identification cards in the second half of next year that have the same legal status as the current plastic identification cards, the interior minister said Tuesday.
The ministry has recently put up a pre-legislation notice about the planned revision of the Resident Registration Act to introduce the mobile resident registration cards amid the increasing social trend to go walletless, ministry officials said.
Should the legislation go as planned, people can get mobile ID cards starting in the second half of next year, the officials said.
The envisioned mobile ID cards encrypt identification information and save it on smartphones and carry the same legal status as the plastic identification cards.
A plastic and a mobile identification card can be issued concurrently, but the mobile card becomes automatically nullified if the plastic version is re-issued.
The ministry is currently servicing driver's licenses in both plastic and mobile formats.
The ministry has also been providing the mobile identification service since July last year, but it is effective only for identification purposes at airports, liquor sellers and some other places, and unavailable for use at financial institutions. (Yonhap)
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