Korean citizenship
The Korean nationality determines a person belongs to one of the currently existing Korean state organizations with the associated rights and obligations.
Until 1948
Subjects of the Choson dynasty were not citizens in the sense of the modern understanding of the nation state. As in other East Asian societies, the idea of the uniqueness of the “pure” Korean state ( danil min jokgukga ) persists , which leads to an institutionalized racism against immigrants. Even today one speaks less of citizenship and more of “nationality” ( 언문 kukchŏk國籍). However, in the north people prefer kongmin ( 公民 ) instead of kukmin ( 국민 , 國民) for citizens .
In contrast to divided Germany, where the FRG, as the legal successor to the Third Reich, assumed that there would only have been German citizenship in 1949-89, the situation here is that before 1948 there was no state for which citizenship existed. The Republic of Korea , however, claims the entire peninsula in Article 3 of its constitution.
In 1900 an ordinance was issued that prohibited the adoption of foreign citizenships. This was supposed to prevent the practice that "Russian" new citizens from Korea could now claim the privileges of extraterritoriality .
Very few Koreans who immigrated to Manchuria or the Russian Far East in the late 19th century did not bother to be entered in their home registers, especially since it was associated with travel and high fees. Most of them are descendants of emigrants from the northern Hamgyŏng province . After the founding of the state of Manchukuo in 1932, the Japanese government also massively encouraged the immigration of its subjects, including naturally numerous Koreans to Manchuria. They became (assimilated) citizens of the Soviet Union or the PRC ( Chosŏnjok ) through circumstances .
As Koryo-Saram known Korean population lives mainly in the Primorye Territory ( Primorsky krai ).
During the period of Japanese administration from 1905/10 , the Japanese Citizenship Act of 1899 was never adopted. However, the new type of family registers created since 1909 form the basis for questions of civil status. Their installation progressed slowly and in 1945 was still patchy, especially in rural regions.
Due to the war, there were massive population shifts from the summers of 1945 to the end of 1953.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
It was not until 1963 that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea saw the need to enact a comparatively short citizenship law. Its structure follows the Soviet one at that time . It was changed in 1995 and 1999.
This law was the first in East Asia in which citizenship is passed on to children equally from both parents. Citizens ( 公民 ) are all those who were of Korean nationality ( 朝鮮 国籍 ) before the founding of the Republic of Korea and had not given up on it. According to the principle of descent , children receive citizenship, according to ius soli the children of stateless persons living in the DPRK. Here too, citizenship is linked to an entry in the family register. Naturalizations and expatriations take effect on the day they are entered in the register. Marriage or divorce do not affect nationality or that of the children.
For Koreans living abroad, a family register is kept at the responsible consular post. In the case of mixed marriages, registration is mandatory. Young people between the ages of 14 and 16 (previously 18) have a say in changes.
The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly decides on naturalizations and exit permits .
On November 17, 1957, an agreement was signed with the Soviet Union that regulates questions of multiple nationality. Otherwise, this issue is not addressed in the North Korean Citizenship Act.
In the south
USAMGIK , in office in the south since the end of 1945, was too preoccupied with the immediate aftermath of the war to deal with citizenship issues before the establishment of the military dictatorship of its puppet Rhee Syng-man in September 1948. Only a control ordinance on the obligation to register foreigners was issued.
It was only with the Public Act No. 11 of May 1948 , questions of citizenship were provisionally settled. As is customary internationally, inheritance through ius sanguinis for legitimate children took place via the father. Wives (and underage children) followed the man's nationality in marriage and naturalization or expatriation. A foreigner marrying in had to apply for naturalization. Naturalized people were excluded from the highest state offices (until 1963). If you voluntarily accept a foreign citizenship, you will lose your Korean citizenship. Re-naturalizations were only possible if they were resident in South Korea.
The legislative changes in 1962 and 1963 allowed re-naturalization outside the country with the approval of an appropriate committee (abolished in 1976). In the case of naturalization, the new citizen was required to give up his old citizenship within six months.
Until 1988, there was no freedom of travel for South Koreans.
The 1998 reform nominally abolished the disadvantage of women. A newly introduced waiting period of two or three years also restricted “marriage immigration”. Citizenship can now be inherited through both parents. Married women can be naturalized without their husbands. However, an application for naturalization is now also required for underage children. An option has been introduced for dual national citizens coming of age (up to their 22nd birthday). There is a new list of reasons for exclusion that prevent re-naturalization.
Minor changes in 2002, 2005, and 2008 eased conditions for illegitimate children and waiting times for wives. Dual nationals can only lose their citizenship after completing their South Korean military service. Naturalization based on incorrect information can now be revoked.
In addition to the formal changes that became necessary due to the reform of the family register, there has been the option of simplified naturalization for “talented people” since 2010 and 2011 . Permanent dual statehood will be tolerated for certain groups of people if the declaration is made not to claim any associated rights in South Korea. It is only possible to give up citizenship at the responsible consular mission if you have permanent residence abroad.
Normal naturalizations are possible after five years and are tied to permanent residence (F-5), integrity, secure maintenance and Korean language skills. Those who have completed the course of the Social Integration Program (500 hours, since 2019 called KIIP ), which has existed since 2009, do not need to take a language test.
In the case of family ties, such as a Korean-born parent or marriage and a residence of at least one year, naturalizations are possible after three or two years. There is also a “nationality examination procedure” which gives the descendants of anti-colonial fighters who lived in China or Sakhalin civil rights when they move to South Korea.
Responsibility lies with a department in the Ministry of Justice that issues administrative instructions. South Korea acceded to the Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons in 1962 , but not to the 1990 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness or the Hague Convention on Citizenship 1930.
The first person naturalized to South Korea was a Taiwanese in February 1957. By January 2011, 100,000 people had been naturalized, the 200,000. was reached in November 2019.
The provisions of the Overseas Migration Act for returnees and the Legislation on Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans (“Overseas Korean Act”) regulate the relationship between the state and its citizens living abroad if they emigrated after 1948. For ethnic Koreans, especially from the former Soviet republics and China, the F4 visa type has existed since 1999 , which makes a long-term stay with a job comparatively easy.
See also
literature
- Hayata, Y .; Lex Patriae of Chinese and Koreans; Japanese Annual of International Law, 1965 (No. 9) 57-68 (1965)
- Kim Chin; North Korean Nationality Law; International Lawyer, Vol. 6 (1972), No. 2, pp. 324-329
- Kim, Nora Hui-Jung; The Janus-faced court of naturalization: Marriage and kinship in naturalization litigation in South Korea; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 42 (2016), pp. 1536–1557
- Lee Chulwoo; Report on Citizenship Law: The Republic of Korea; Edinburgh 2017 (Global Citizenship Observatory); RSCAS / GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/6
- Citizenship Status of Soviet Koreans, 1945-1975; in Lipson, L .; V. Chalidze, v. [Ed.]; Papers on Soviet Law; New York 1977, No. l, pp. 143-166
- Tomson, Edgar; Citizenship law of the East Asian countries: China-Japan-Korea-Mongolia; Frankfurt 1971
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Hobsbawm, Eric J .; Nations and nationalism since 1780: Program, myth, reality; Cambridge 1992 (Cambridge University Press)
- ↑ The idea of a "pure" Korean race is based on the legend that Dangun Wanggeom founded the empire in 2333 BC.
- ↑ General: Park Hyun-gwi; Migration Regime among Koreans in the Russian Far East; Inner Asia, Vol. 15 (2013), No. 1, pp. 77-99
- ↑ Official Journal: 朝鮮 総 督府 官 報 京城 No. 1.1910 (Aug.) - 578.1912; [NF] 1.1912 - 4382.1941 [?].
- ↑ 정령 제 242 호로 채택 , cor. Text in Minju Choson, October 10, 1963. Engl. Trans. In Kim (1972).
- ↑ Ведомости Верховного Совета СССР, 1958, No. 4.
- ↑ Renamed on Aug. 15, 1948 to Civil Affairs Group of USAFIK, later US Military Advisory Group in Korea = USAMGIK again.
- ↑ For Japanese USAMGIK Ordinance 10 , Oct. 8, 1945. Regulation texts in: 美軍 政 廰 官 報 = Official Gazette, United States Army Military Government in Korea; reprint 1991 in 4 volumes.
- ↑ "Temporary Provisions Concerning the Law of Nationality," which retroactively to 9 Aug 1945 invented a Korean nationality. In force as the “Nationality Act” at the same time as the Constitution on July 17, 1948.
- ↑ Replacement of the Hoju system ( 戶主 制 , Hojuje ), the exclusively patriarchal family line, on January 1, 2008, by an individual civil status register .
- ↑ pensioners returning home from abroad, those who were adopted abroad as children , etc.