More people in South Korea are moving online to file complaints in light of improvements to the nation’s online petition system, according to South Korean government data on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said the number of civil complaints filed online rose by more than 13 percent to 362 million cases, equaling about 55 percent of all civil complaints. Administrative agencies handled a total of about 657 million civil complaints last year, up 7.8 percent from 609 million cases in 2012.

Last year marks the second consecutive year that e-applications accounted for more than half of all civil complaint filings. Online civil complaint registration has risen by 20 percentage points since 2009 at about 32 percent, while on-site registration has fallen by about 20 percentage points from 57 percent.

On the other hand, on-site civil complaints rose for the verification of personal identification in 2013. The number rose by 22 percent to 78.4 million cases, due to the rise use of stolen personal data.

By government department, the Public Procurement Service agency received all of its civil complaints online, with Korea Customs Service following at 98.7 percent, the Ministry of National Defense at 97.7 percent, Korean Intellectual Property Office at 96.6 percent and Defense Acquisition Program Administration following closely at 81.5 percent. 


By Suh Ye-seul
(sys@heraldcorp.com)