South Korean ID database outage did not overlap with Chinese tourists' visa-free entry

The public data director at South Korea’s interior ministry says access to the country’s national ID database was restored before a visa-free scheme for Chinese tourists came into effect, contradicting posts pushing conspiracy theories that the disruption allowed them to circumvent a ban on tourists from opening a mobile phone account. The official and the Ministry of Science and ICT say the temporary outage also did not remove a legal requirement for telecom providers to verify subscribers’ national ID number or alien registration number.