Mobile ID cards to become available on Samsung Wallet

From left: Samsung Electronics Vice President Lim Seong-taek, Samsung Electronics President Roh Tae-moon, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and Presidential Committee on the Digital Platform Government Chair Go Jin show their mobile identification cards on Samsung Wallet during an open event, Wednesday. (Yonhap)

Mobile identification cards, such as the driver’s license and the mobile national veteran's registration card, were to start being issued on Samsung Wallet from Wednesday, said the Ministry of Interior and Safety.

On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry hosted an open event with Samsung Electronics to publicly announce the introduction of digital ID cards. At the event, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and Chair Go Jin from the Presidential Committee on the Digital Platform Government demonstrated the use of their mobile driver’s license issued through Samsung Wallet for identity verification.

Mobile ID cards were first introduced by the Interior Ministry in 2022, as part of the government’s basic e-government plan to verify their identities using mobile identification cards conveniently and safely. In 2022, the mobile driver’s license began to be issued through the ministry’s Mobile Identification Card application and the mobile national veterans registration card began to be issued in 2023.

As of February 2024, more than 2.22 million mobile identification cards have been issued through the ministry’s application, according to the Interior Ministry.

The Interior Ministry is pushing to include digital ID cards in various privately-run apps that are used on an everyday basis to increase user convenience, with Samsung Wallet being the first private mobile payment app to introduce the service. In just South Korea, Samsung Wallet has up to 17 million users.

Instead of having to separately download the ministry’s Mobile Identification Card app, those who used the Samsung Wallet app previously can issue mobile ID cards directly through the app.

Since signing a memorandum of understanding with Samsung Electronics in October 2023 to introduce mobile ID cards to the private sector, the Interior Ministry also completed establishing the hardware system needed to conveniently and safely issue mobile ID cards in December.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry also added that it will begin to expand the availability of mobile ID cards to also issue digital national identification cards for Korean citizens, residence cards for Korean nationals who hold permanent residency overseas and resident registration cards for foreign nationals living here. Digital ID cards could begin to be issued as early as the second half of 2024.

Currently, while mobile ID cards will be privately issued only through Samsung Wallet, the Interior Ministry added that it will expand its service to other private mobile payment apps in the future.

By Lee Jung-joo(lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com)