South Korea begins trial of mandatory face recognition for new mobile numbers

Seoul: South Korea on Tuesday launched a trial period for a new policy requiring people to undergo real-time face recognition when registering a new mobile phone number, as the government aims to curb scam attempts using illegally registered accounts.

The country’s three mobile carriers — SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus — along with mobile virtual network operators, will be required to follow the procedure in both in-person and remote settings under the new policy, which is set to be officially launched in March.