South Korea Plans to Legislate to Grant Financial Authorities Power to Freeze Accounts Suspected of Illegal Virtual Assets

TechFlow news, July 30. According to reports from "Digital Asset", South Korean People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon, along with 15 lawmakers, initiated an amendment to the Specific Financial Information Act on July 28. The bill defines the unique identification number assigned by virtual asset service providers to users as an "account", and grants the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) the power to request payment freezes on bank accounts and virtual asset accounts suspected of being used for illegal property transfers. The freeze period is 30 days, extendable once, and financial institutions failing to execute in a timely manner will face a fine of up to 100 million Korean won. The bill will officially take effect 6 months after promulgation.