Government Conducts First Ever Fact-Finding Survey on 290,000 Long-Term Missing Residents

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Administrative Service Usage Verification, 90,000 Confirmed in First Survey
Final Results to Be Announced by the 10th of Next Month Reflecting Second Survey Conducted with Local Governments

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The government will conduct the first fact-finding survey targeting 290,000 "long-term residents with unknown residence" who have not registered their residence for more than five years among 400,000 residents whose registered residence is unclear as of the end of last year.

On the 24th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it will conduct a "Long-term Residents with Unknown Residence Fact-finding Survey" by the 10th of next month in cooperation with local governments, targeting residents whose registered residence has been unclear for more than five years (long-term residents with unknown residence). This fact-finding survey is the first to be conducted nationwide simultaneously in towns, townships, and neighborhoods following the amendment of the Resident Registration Act, which established the basis for investigating residents with unknown residence.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety introduced and has been operating the "Unknown Residence Registration System" since 2009 to protect people with unclear residence under the social safety net. However, the need for follow-up management and actual condition assessment of residents with unknown residence has been continuously raised. In particular, until death reports or loss of nationality are confirmed, the resident registration remains unchanged, reducing the accuracy of the registered population and increasing administrative costs based on the registered population.

Accordingly, in 2019, a legal basis was established allowing mayors of cities, counties, and districts to investigate and take administrative actions regarding residents with unknown residence to verify their residence status. As of 2020, about 400,000 people had unclear residence status according to the resident registration, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety conducted this survey targeting 291,456 people whose residence has been unclear for more than five years.

This "Long-term Residents with Unknown Residence Fact-finding Survey" is conducted non-face-to-face based on various official records to verify the residence status of long-term residents with unknown residence. The Ministry checked over 20 types of administrative service usage, including health insurance premium payments, national pension subscriptions, and basic living allowance receipts, conducting the first survey from January 18 to February 7. Subsequently, 90,561 people with records of administrative service usage were identified, and 208,950 people with no usage records were notified to the respective local governments.

Each local government will conduct additional investigations on the listed individuals, such as family relationship registration details and departure status, by the 10th of next month, followed by procedures such as re-registration announcements. Based on the results of the first and second surveys, measures such as maintaining unknown residence registration or administrative deletion will be implemented.

Meanwhile, if long-term residents with unknown residence re-register as residents, fines imposed according to legal reasons may be reduced or exempted. If re-registration is completed during this fact-finding survey period, a 20% reduction in fines will be applied to encourage re-registration.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to conduct fact-finding surveys on residents with unknown residence at least once a year to improve the accuracy of resident registration and enhance administrative efficiency accordingly. Park Sung-ho, Director of Local Autonomy and Decentralization at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "Resident registration data is important foundational information for the state and local governments to establish and implement policies. Since this is the first fact-finding survey on residents with unknown residence, we will continue to supplement various methods to verify the residence status of residents with unknown residence and improve the accuracy of resident registration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.