South Korean president is ID theft victim-lawmaker

SEOUL, June 28 (Reuters) South Korea's president and prime minister appear to have become victims of online identity theft after their names were used by others to access hundreds of game and pornographic Web sites, an opposition MP said today.

The 13-digit personal identification numbers of President Roh Moo-hyun and Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook are readily accessible on Internet search engines and have been used by numerous South Koreans, United Liberal Democrat Ryu Keun-chan said in a posting on his Internet site.

ID numbers along with names form the basis of almost all aspects of South Koreans' lives, from claiming medical insurance and subscribing to a mobile phone service to paying taxes and registering on Internet sites.

Roh's ID number was used to access 416 sites requiring personal identification, including 280 pornographic sites, Ryu said.

Roh's office declined to comment.

''You have to think that it's highly likely that their ID numbers were stolen,'' said Ryu, who is pushing for tougher laws on ID theft in South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the developed world.

''When the president and the prime ministers' ID numbers are available online and their stolen ID numbers are used on Web sites, it's not hard to imagine how carelessly the average person is treated,'' Ryu said.

There are Web sites in South Korea that allow people to see where their personal identification numbers have been used for on-line registrations, and Ryu said he was able to find the number of registrations for Roh through one of these services.

Concerns in South Korea about ID theft were raised recently by reports that more than 1 million people had their ID numbers used by people they did not know to access a popular game site.

REUTERS KD PC1024