Number of Unregistered Citizens Is Increasing

With the economy slump continuing, the number of unregistered citizens who have had their resident registrations cancelled is increasing. Most of these unregistered citizens are people who disappeared because they could not pay their debts, leaving creditors such as credit card companies and banks filing “requests to confirm the residence of debtors” to the administration, which in turn uses its authority to cancel resident registration because they cannot find the debtors. During last year alone, over 310,000 citizens had their resident registrations canceled, and 260,000 of them had their registrations authoritatively canceled. It is the dark shadow of a society with 3.7 million delinquent debtors.

I Don’t Have Resident Registration—

Mr. K (33) recently had his registration canceled. He could not pay 15 million won worth of credit card debts on time, so he wandered around dodging presses to pay the money. The credit card company, on the other hand, presented the district office with a petition to verify if Mr. K was really living in his resident registration address. The office checked if Mr. K was actually living in that address, and when the absence of Mr. K was confirmed, the office canceled his resident registration. Mr. K was bitter about it and said, “On paper, I have become a ghost.”

Early this month, Ms. O (28) went to the district office and filed to have her mother’s registration canceled, citing that her mother had run away and become missing. In reality, however, it was because she could not bear the calls by creditors insisting for her to pay her mother’s bank loans and mobile telephone bills.

A worker at the Seoul Eunpyong-Gu Nokbung-Dong Office said, “Almost every day, we have creditors coming in filing for registration cancellation,” adding, “Most of the cancellations are authoritative cancellations enforced upon request.”

Another worker at the Nowon-Gu Sangye 9-Dong Office said, “Cancellations enforced upon the request of family members are very rare, but nowadays you see one or two cases every month, and sometimes even five cases in a single month.”

“There are cases in which people had their registration cancelled because they didn’t report their new address after they moved because of creditors, and sometimes people gradually had their own registrations cancelled,” commented a worker at Youngdeungpo-Gu Shingil 1-Dong Office.

Creditor vs. Debtor—

Creditors such as banks and credit card companies file for registration cancellation in order to proceed with civil suits on the debtor’s assets. If the creditors want to enforce legal measures, the court has to notify the defendant or the debtor subject to trial, but if the debtor continues evading or being absent, it is often impossible to notify them of the trial. “That is why in such cases, the court requires the registration cancellation certificate appended to the credit collection lawsuit documents presented to the court,” explained an officer heading K credit card company’s credit collection department.

Another worker at a credit card company said, “When mail demanding for debtors to pay continues to return, the creditors themselves go visit the place to confirm the existence of the debtor, and often, the debtor is living there but is lying, so we file for registration cancellation as a mean to pressure the debtors.”

What Happens if the Registration is Cancelled?—

Once the registration is cancelled, one is excluded from medical care insurance, the national basic subsistence guarantee system, and the national pension. In addition, one’s financial transactions are limited, and the right to vote is revoked.

Manager Chun (36) of C hospital, located in Eunpyong-Gu said, “I have seen a few delinquent debtors who found out that their registrations had been cancelled while checking their medical care insurance.”

After the resident registration is cancelled one can re-register after paying a 100,000 won fine, but debtors are reluctant to do so in order to avoid creditors.

Yi-Young Cho lycho@donga.com