Opening of Korea Internet & Security Agency Beijing Office
Meeting Held with Chinese Internet Companies
The Personal Information Protection Commission and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) requested Chinese companies to protect the personal information of our citizens on the 18th. Until now, the Internet Promotion Agency, which operated in the form of an office in China, plans to establish an official representative office in Beijing and expand cooperation for information security and legal compliance.
Choi Jang-hyuk, Vice Chairman, attended the opening ceremony of the KISA Beijing Representative Office held at the Holiday Inn Beijing Focus Square Hotel in Beijing on the same day and announced this through a meeting with Chinese internet companies. Vice Chairman Choi emphasized, "In a situation where data moves across borders, the governments and institutions of both Korea and China must properly protect personal information," adding, "Through this, citizens can safely use goods or services from the other country."
Choi Jang-hyuk, Vice Chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission (center front row), attended the opening ceremony of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) Beijing Representative Office held on the 18th at the Holiday Inn Beijing Focus Square Hotel in Beijing, China, and took a commemorative photo with officials. (Photo by Kim Hyun-jung)
The Korea-China Internet Cooperation Center, which held the opening ceremony that day, had been operating as an unofficial Chinese office of KISA since 2012, and was officially established as a representative office last December with the approval of the Chinese government. The Korea-China Cooperation Center has cooperated with the Internet Society of China (ISC) to promptly delete personal information of our citizens that is illegally distributed or exposed in China. The center deleted as many as 1,455 pieces of personal information last year.
Ryu Bok-geun, Economic Counselor at the Korean Embassy in China, who attended the event, said, "In the past, personal information such as Korean resident registration numbers was massively leaked and often misused for crimes or linked to illegal spam problems," adding, "There were difficulties because the legal status of the KISA Beijing office was unclear, but fortunately, it has recently been registered as an official representative office, which I am pleased about." Counselor Ryu further explained, "There are many issues to solve recently, such as personal information protection, data security, intellectual property protection, fake news, and information gaps," and added, "It is time to think together and find solutions."
Following the opening ceremony, Vice Chairman Choi held a meeting with Chen Jia-chun, Vice Chairman of the Internet Society of China (ISC), and about ten Chinese companies including AliExpress and Pinduoduo (Temu), explaining Korea’s personal information protection laws and especially the matters that overseas businesses should pay attention to for compliance. This was intended to raise awareness of Korean laws in the Chinese industry, considering the recent rapid increase in domestic users’ use of Chinese online services.
At the meeting, the main contents of the ‘Guide to the Application of Personal Information Protection Laws for Overseas Businesses’ published by the Personal Information Protection Commission on the 4th were explained, followed by a Q&A session. Vice Chairman Choi urged, "In a borderless digital world, the whole world must work together to protect personal information," and added, "I hope efforts will be made to improve the level of personal information protection not only in China but also for Korean users."
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