Korea to fingerprint tourists and foreign residents

South Korea will be the newest country to institute a fingerprinting system similar to those found in the United States and Japan:

The Ministry of Justice said Saturday that it will propose to revise the Immigration Law so that all foreign nationals, either for short-term stay or long-term, are obliged to provide their biometric information to the Korean authorities when they come to the country. It will submit the revision bill to the National Assembly in the second half of next year, and the new regulation, if passed, will take effect as early as 2010.

Up to 2003, Korean immigration officials used to fingerprint long-term foreign residents who were to stay here for a year or more when giving them alien registration numbers. But the Roh Moo-hyun administration scrapped the biometric data collection, following criticism that it could infringe on human rights, said a ministry official.

Do you think more countries should fingerprint all foreign tourists and immigrants?

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The Overthinker

I must make sure to visit Korea before 2010 then, not that I can really think of a reason to visit Korea. Duty-free shopping perhaps….

niels

Cheap DVD’s and bluray discs and superion PMP devices would be an other reason to go.
And as far as I’ve visited countries other then my own (have not been in Russia or most states in the us) it has the only amusement park where you can, amongst all the rides for little kiddies, go to a shooting range, pick up any of a number (I think 16 or so different ones) hand guns and shoot live amo at targets for a measly $6. No prcessing or whatever needed.

This is in Lotte world in Seoul.

An other plus is they have also opened a Fugetsu store in Seoul.

The Overthinker

Korea and Japan are different for DVDs, if I remember rightly.
Lotte World – where you can practise for Korean War II, eh?

niels

You’re right, Korea has region 3 while Japan has region 2 for DVDs. But you can buy a region free DVD player for 2900 yen. Well, you could in August…
Haven’t been back to Japan or Korea since August.

Blu ray however, is the same region code. And loads cheaper then .jp

And I did have a nice day in Lotte world. The only downside were the many Loteria burger joints. The plus side was the all girl hot pants wearing brass and drum band parading through the park
The Overthinker

“The plus side was the all girl hot pants wearing brass and drum band parading through the park”

Okay, now I’m booking a ticket. Although the actual brass and drum part would be annoying….

R.

“Do you think more countries should fingerprint all foreign tourists and immigrants?”

Depends. There are countries that are willing to receive immigrants and those that are not and feel uncomfortable with them. I would say, to those that feel uncomfortable adopt the biometric system and be done with it, specially Korea that has many poor countries around it.

canadaguy

I’d have to say the UN or someone should police it. I could see developed nations like Canada, UK or France doing this. But other ones which are much more corrupt (China, Iran, even Italy) shouldn’t for two reasons:

1) Their governments might abuse the data to spy on dissents or even come up with fake evidence to land people in jail.

2) Their information security is questionable.

mizaru

i love being treated like a criminal, don’t you?
momonga

If I was a LOL cat I’d say:
Do not care!!

I find it rather amusing to give my fingerprints . I haven’t done anything wrong, and if anyone (Japanese, Korean) thinks that they would catch Osama by fingerprinting people, lets cooperate.

The Overthinker

Japan and Korea have no intention of catching Osama or other terrorists with fingerprints. It’s all about catching people trying to get back into the country after they have been expelled.

And the old “I haven’t done anything wrong so why should I worry” adage is rather naive, for two reasons. One is the principal that the less information about you that other people (especially governments and large organizations) have the better. Information is power, after all.

And also the fact that while you might not have done anything wrong under present law, what if the law changes? Then they already have your information to use as they like. To give a simple example: Government A collects info of library usage – who gets out what books. A benign statistical survey to determine literacy and funding rates for libraries. Then certain books are determined to be bad, and the government wants to know who is reading them. Your name pops up, and the next thing you know you’re on a no-fly list as a potential terrorist.

Korea to fingerprint tourists and foreign residents

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