South Korea said Friday it will push for expanding a system for prescreening passengers to keep potential terrorists from entering the country.
The move is designed to analyze passenger information before airlines issue boarding passes to restrict potential terrorists and other dangerous passengers from flying into South Korea, the Justice Ministry reported in a meeting with the ruling party.
South Korea has been running a test operation of the prescreening system in several airports, including Nagoya Airport in Japan, since February 2015.
During the period, the ministry said it banned 358 people, including sex and drug offenders, from boarding flights bound for South Korea by checking some 1.06 million passengers in advance.
The government and the ruling Saenuri Party also agreed to push for an amendment of the Immigration Control Act to intensify control over individuals considered to be security risks and to prepare grounds to collect foreigners' fingerprints.
They also plan to strengthen cooperation among the state intelligence agency, the police and the immigration bureau, and build a stronger international network to counter terrorism.
In recent months, Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main gateway, has been hit hard by a series of security breaches.
A warning message printed in Arabic was found inside a box in a men's bathroom in the airport last month, though it was later found that the culprit was a South Korean man angry over his unemployment.
During the meeting, the ruling party chief Kim Moo-sung called for the swift passage of anti-terrorism bills, denouncing the main opposition party for disapproving them.
"Without the bills, we cannot help but be helpless when North Korea plots a terror attack in collaboration with a terrorism organization," Kim said in the meeting at Incheon International Airport.
The main opposition Minjoo Party has been critical of the bills over concerns about giving more authority to the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's top spy agency.
South Korea has deported 53 foreigners in recent months for allegedly following terrorist groups. (Yonhap)
