Complaints about South Korean mobile IDs being refused or unusable rose about 22-fold in three years, from 105 in 2022 to 2,323 in 2025, according to Ministry of the Interior and Safety data obtained by Jin Jong-oh, a People Power Party lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee. The count climbed to 408 in 2023 and 1,147 in 2024 before more than doubling again last year.
South Koreans can identify themselves by phone in two ways: government-issued mobile IDs, covering the resident registration card and driver’s license, and confirmation services that display a person’s physical ID details on a smartphone. The mobile resident registration card was rolled out nationwide by March 2025, and the ministry has since extended mobile ID verification to Korean nationals living abroad.
Jin’s office says the tools for checking authenticity differ by service. Both government mobile IDs can be verified with the ministry’s mobile ID verification app, while the resident registration confirmation service can be checked with that app, Government24 or the PASS app, and the police-run driver’s license confirmation service only with PASS. The office also found cases where staff look at the phone screen instead of scanning its QR code, including at the National Assembly members’ office building.
When businesses refuse mobile IDs under internal rules, the ministry explains their legal validity and encourages acceptance but cannot easily compel it, according to Jin’s office. Acceptance also varies across public exams: national qualification tests run by HRD Korea accept mobile IDs, while the College Scholastic Ability Test does not.
Requests to police to investigate illegal social media advertisements offering forged resident registration confirmation screens rose from 161 in 2023 to 186 in 2024 and 201 in 2025, with 127 more through August this year.
An iPhone weakness raised during the 2022 parliamentary audit also remains, Jin’s office says: a mobile driver’s license issued on an iPhone stays active, and can still pass QR verification, after the USIM is replaced with one registered to someone else. South Korea has separately introduced optional facial recognition for new mobile phone activations to curb fraudulently opened lines.
The government has spent about KRW 69.1 billion on building and operating mobile ID over five years, with annual spending rising from KRW 7.8 billion in 2022 to KRW 14.4 billion in 2025.
“Mobile IDs and identity confirmation services are expanding rapidly, but verification methods differ from service to service, and in the field people still sometimes rely on visual checks,” Jin said.
Sources: Yonhap News Agency, Popcorn News
–
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
