The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 23rd that "the newly imposed sales suspension on SK Telecom through administrative guidance will be lifted starting from the 24th."
The Ministry of Science and ICT had previously issued administrative guidance on the 1st of last month, instructing SK Telecom to completely halt new recruitment of mobile service users to resolve the issue of insufficient supply of SIM cards (USIM). Accordingly, SK Telecom suspended new sales at over 2,600 T World stores (directly operated and franchises) nationwide starting from the 5th of last month.
Considering the stock situation of SK Telecom, the Ministry of Science and ICT also allowed the activation of embedded SIM cards (eSIM) unrelated to the SIM card exchange starting from the 16th. The full resumption of sales occurred 51 days after the implementation of the administrative guidance.
The Ministry of Science and ICT has maintained that sales resumption can begin once conditions are established that do not affect SIM card exchanges at SK Telecom. Currently, the SIM card inventory held by SK Telecom exceeds the number of pending exchanges. The Ministry of Science and ICT has demanded that, even with the resumption of new sales, SK Telecom prioritize the SIM card exchanges for existing subscribers.
A representative from the Ministry of Science and ICT noted, "If SK Telecom can secure more SIM cards than the future replacement demand, and the new reservation system introduced on the 20th has stabilized, the purpose of the administrative guidance issued to SK Telecom regarding the SIM card shortage has been fulfilled, leading to the lifting of the new sales suspension."