The South Korean government urged the country's leading mobile carrier SK Telecom to suspend new subscriber signups until its hacking-prompted USIM card replacement scheme gets back on track.

In an administrative guidance order released Thursday, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that the measures were drawn up to urge SK Telecom to implement stronger corrective actions in response to the cyberattack, which was detected by the mobile carrier on April 18.

The order demands SK Telecom refrain from signing up new users until it secures a sufficient amount of USIM cards for replacements for existing users.

It further requests that the mobile carrier submit a detailed plan to offer USIM Protection Service to the underprivileged, suggested during a parliamentary hearing of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on Wednesday, and to hold daily briefings to transparently share updates on the hack.

SK Telecom has been offering free USIM card replacements as a follow-up measure in response to the data breach. Yet, with the mobile carrier unable to secure a sufficient amount of USIM cards for its roughly 25 million subscribers, the replacement scheme has been majorly delayed.

“The measures were drawn up to demand SK Telecom, a key telecommunication business entity that represents the country, take full responsibility to resolve the incident. The Science Ministry will put in all efforts as well,” said Kang Do-hyun, second vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Though an administrative guidance is not legally binding, SK Telecom is likely to adopt the instructions to a certain extent, considering they were made by regulatory authorities.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)