Reform bill mandates renewing ID card every 10 years

A person fills out an application for a resident registration card at a community service center in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, in January. [YONHAP]

The government is drafting a bill to require people to renew their personal ID cards every 10 years.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety announced Wednesday that it has drafted a bill to put a 10-year validity period on the personal identification cards issued by the government and standardize them.

This comes after consultation with related agencies such as the Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry and National Police Agency.

Seven national IDs that fall under the requirement will be the resident registration card, alien registration card, driver’s license, passport, patriots and veterans card, disability registration card and youth card.

The resident registration card, held by all Koreans, does not have an expiry date, allowing people to carry decades-old ID cards.

The Interior Ministry expects to improve administrative efficiency and boost public convenience by keeping the IDs up-to-date with a 10-year cap.

Alien registration cards, passports and driver’s licenses, currently valid for 10 years, will maintain their expiration date. Disability cards and veterans and patriots cards are currently valid for 5 years. Youth cards are valid for those under 19.

Under the standardization act, all ID cards will allow personal names of up to 19 Korean characters or 37 Roman letters. Up to 18 Korean characters are currently allowed on resident registration cards, 10 on driver’s licenses and 8 on passports. Some 22,000 driver’s licenses are reportedly misspelled because of this character limit.

All photos on these IDs will be 3.5 centimeters (1.38 inches) wide and 4.5 centimeters high, the same as the photo size for passports.

The Interior Ministry will have an administrative announcement period between Thursday and June 28 to survey public opinion before finalizing and enforcing the act.

Government innovation comes from “identifying and solving public inconvenience along the process of implementing systems and services,” said Jeong Seon-yong, deputy minister of government innovation and organization management at the Interior Ministry.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]