Korea to introduce major change to resident ID card system

South Korea’s mandatory ID card system is set to remove information about the region of issuance from October, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Monday.

All Koreans are assigned a 13-digit resident registration number in their ID cards. Currently, four digits are used to indicate the place of issuance.

The Interior Ministry said Monday the four digits, from eighth to eleventh, will be replaced by arbitrary numbers in an effort to protect personal information and prevent discrimination of people from certain areas.

This is the first time the country is implementing a major change to its resident registration number system in 45 years since 1975 when the current system was introduced.

The current 13-digit registration number is divided into two parts. The first six digits represent birth year, month and day, while the next seven indicate gender, regional code, registration number and verification number.

The new system will apply to those who are set to get a new resident registration code from October. Under the new ID card system, residents will be allowed to hide certain personal data to prevent the leak of personal data.

By Kim Tae-eun (kimt17@heraldcorp.com)