The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will launch a mobile service in the first half of next year that will allow users to verify their resident identification cards on their smartphones.

The ministry announced the new program on Wednesday, which will allow people to verify their age at restaurants or convenient stores, confirm their identity before boarding a plane, or conduct transactions without the need of an ID card.

However, when the law requires a person to present an ID card, the mobile app cannot act as a substitute.

The ministry explained there are no concerns of data leaks as the phone will not save the information but simply receive it in encrypted form on a real-time basis from the government's resident registration system.

Users must first go through a process to verify their identity on the government’s administrative portal (www.gov.kr) and then download a QR code to access the service.