Abolition of Regional Codes: 'Resident Registration Number' Implemented from This Month

[Goheung=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] On the 15th, Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do announced that starting from the 5th, due to a partial amendment of the Enforcement Rules of the Resident Registration Act to strengthen personal information protection, the regional code in the back digits of the resident registration number will be removed and replaced with a random number.

The current resident registration number consists of a total of 13 digits: the first six digits represent the date of birth, and the last seven digits include gender + birth township code + registration order + verification number.

There have been ongoing concerns that the resident registration number can be easily inferred due to the assignment of numbers according to a fixed rule, and that the inclusion of regional codes in the resident registration number could lead to discrimination against people from specific regions.

In response, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety collected opinions and reviewed various reforms of the resident registration number system, and to prevent change costs and social confusion, proposed an improvement plan that maintains the date of birth and gender but abolishes the regional code.

This marks the first change in the resident registration number system in 45 years since its establishment.

The change applies only to those newly assigned numbers due to birth or other reasons after October 5, and to those who change their numbers due to crime victimization, while existing citizens will continue to use their current resident registration numbers.

A county official stated, "With the enforcement of this regulation, it is expected that unfortunate incidents such as personal information leaks, which are currently a major problem, will significantly decrease."

Meanwhile, those who wish to change their resident registration number can submit an application at the township civil service office, and upon receiving the change notification, will be assigned a random number for the last six digits of the seven digits at the back, excluding the first digit which indicates gender.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.