South Korean embassies overseas will use blockchain technology in sending notarized documents to organizations at home. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science and ICT said the platform will complete this month.

The South Korean Embassy in Japan and the South Korean Consulate in Los Angeles will start the business sometime in the first half of next year. Fourteen domestic financial companies will be linked to the platform. From 2020, all South Korean embassies overseas will be hooked up with the service.

When the service is in operation, South Korean residents and businessmen overseas will use the network to send all financial documents and property contracts made overseas to the home organizations. These documents contracted overseas will have the same effect as those made at home.

Currently, the documents and contracts made overseas must be signed, notarized and sent to the related organizations in PDF. However, home organizations, including banks and government offices, were reluctant to accept these foreign-generated documents out of concern for forgery.

A Foreign Ministry official said these documents would be shared online among home organizations, the government agencies, and the foreign countries.

Annually, about South Koreans overseas sent 300,000 documents to home countries for property and financial deals and tax payment.