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Park, Whon-Il --- "Republic of Korea" [2008] ELECD 403; in Rule, B. James (ed), "Global Privacy Protection" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Global Privacy Protection

Editor(s): Rule, B. James

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848440630

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Republic of Korea

Author(s): Park, Whon-Il

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

7. Republic of Korea
Whon-Il Park
South Koreans are familiar with the words of a song, `My RR Card'. In 1997,
a Korean rock singer roused sympathy by the following lines:

Korean citizens hold RR cards
I'm bearing in mind 800216-1068312
This number is more important than my name
Engraved in my head
The number will be alive until I die

Without the resident registration card, South Koreans have trouble getting
inside government buildings, or applying for financial transactions and
website membership. Sometimes they are asked by policemen to show the
identity card on the street.
Transsexuals have more troubles with these cards. While the first group of
the resident registration number means the birthday (yy/mm/dd), the follow-
ing seven digits denote the sex and residential information of the holder. So it
is troublesome to hold a card which shows a different sexual identity from
his/her appearance. Some transsexuals filed a lawsuit with the court to change
the sex digit, but only a few succeeded. Until June 2006, when the Supreme
Court approved the change of sex in the family census registry, judges would
not have allowed such change.


HISTORY OF PRIVACY PROTECTION
At first, holding the resident registration card was mandatory for the purpose
of national security. But the situation has drastically changed in the past 40
years. With unparalleled economic development and democratization of the
Korean society, the resident registration number is no longer indispensable to
protect the country. On the contrary, ...