A bill to replace resident registration cards with microchips containing personal information is unlikely to pass parliament within this term, officials said Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the revision for the Resident Registration Act has yet to be placed before the National Assembly’s judicial committee. Considering that the present National Assembly has effectively ceased to sit in preparation for the April 11 general elections, it is unlikely that the revision will not pass.

And while ministry officials still hope parliament will hold another session in April, they believe the chances are low.

According to officials, the revision is intended to prevent forgery and tampering with resident registration cards by creating a hard-to-copy electronic version containing an individual’s sex, birthday and other information by 2017.

Ministry officials argue that since the current resident registration cards have been in use for the past 10 years, they need to be replaced.

The government had pushed forward a plan in 1998 and 2006 to issue electronic registration cards, but concerns about possible human rights violations and personal information exposure have meant the bill has seen little progress.

Officials from the Democratic Legal Studies Association, the Unified Progressive Party, Jinbonet and other liberal groups advocating human rights held a press conference last month in opposition of the revision.

“It is shocking to hear that the government plans to create electronic registration cards in order to prevent the leak of registration numbers,” representatives of the groups said at the press conference.

Opponents also cited the high cost of implementing the system, the possibility of information leaking and increased control from the government as other reasons for opposing the microchip.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)