hankyoreh

By Hwangbo Yon, staff reporter

Two items stand at the top of the Park Geun-hye administration’s “deregulation priority list”: food trucks, and the certificate verification system. While reports suggest that the certification system is being done away with soon, a closer look suggests that the rumors can’t be trusted.

Of all the “cancerous regulations” singled out by the administration, the certificate verification system may have the broadest support for deregulation. Speaking at an inaugural combined regulatory reform ministers’ meeting and joint government-private regulatory reform review council meeting at the Blue House on Mar. 20, Park lamented, “There are stories about Chinese viewers who watched a South Korean TV series and went to one of our shopping malls to buy the outfit the main character was wearing, but they couldn’t make the purchase because of the certificate verification system.”

Federation of Korean Industries vice chairman Lee Seung-cheol, also attending the meeting, said, “Because of Active X, [foreigners] who want to buy a ‘Cheon Song-yi coat’ can’t do it.” Cheon Song-yi is the name of the lead character played by actress Jun Ji-hyun on the popular TV series “My Love from the Star.”

Why can’t people overseas buy Song-yi’s coat? Certificate verification, developed in 1999 by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) at the government’s behest, was introduced to provide identity authentication and electronic signature functions. In 2007, it was made mandatory for all electronic finance transactions.

But non-South Koreans who do not have a resident registration number cannot be issued one, which significantly limits their online shopping capabilities. The ActiveX mentioned by Lee is a type of application exclusively for Internet Explorer that must be installed before certificate verification can be carried out.

Park’s comments triggered an outpouring of long pent-up frustrations with the system. Since the certificates are not restricted in terms of storage medium, they can be stored and copies on various devices, including personal computers. And the multiple security flaws with ActiveX - which can be used to spread malware - have prompted many to call for an end to it.

In the wake of the Blue House meeting, the deregulation pushed seemed to be gathering a full head of steam. When the measures launched to allow foreign Internet users to pick up a Cheon Song-yi coat were met by cries of discrimination against South Korean consumers, the plan was set to allow access to everyone. While current electronic finance oversight regulations require certificate verification for all purchases over 300,000 won (US$284), the new system would allow any company to have online shopping without a certificate, no matter what amount. But under the new system, there are no companies who have passed the difficult standards to get permission to open online shopping.

But the prevailing view is that changing the regulations requiring certificate use is unlikely to accomplish much - especially when few businesses are willing to invest in developing a new form of verification to be used in place of the more familiar option.

“Companies aren’t very confident when it comes to security issues,” said a Financial Services Commission officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They’re most likely going to keep using certificate verification.”

Similar reasoning explains why the Korea International Trade Association has announced plans to set up a separate shopping mall exclusively for foreigners, which would not require certificates. Experts said the aim is most likely to produce some kind of immediate, visible results, instead of reforming the existing certificate system.

“Fundamentally, we are not going to see new security technology until they let go of this antiquated ‘government control’ notion of security, where the government takes the lead in building an authentication system and setting up entry regulations,” said Kim Ki-chang, a professor at the Korea University law school.

“The government seems to be approaching the regulatory reform issue too superficially,” Kim added.

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