Korea is introducing a registered e-mail service in October that will do away with much paperwork that now has to be sent by post, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Tuesday.

The groundbreaking service will inform senders when the recipient has received the message and allow the recipient to check the sender's identity.

The e-mail address for the service will have "#" instead of "@." Both sender and recipient need to open # e-mail accounts after being verified based on their IDs or a mobile phone number.

The ministry said the service is safer than the existing registered mail and the process of sending and receiving e-mails has full legal force and effect.

The ministry will gather opinions and make a final decision in September.

"The service will make it possible to handle 236 million electronic documents and save W310 billion in postal services annually," a ministry official claimed.