Overseas Koreans given voting rights

Overseas Korean nationals including those with permanent residency in other countries can now vote on local issues if they have filed their residence reports in Korea at the time of voter registration.

They will be given the right to cast a ballot on local agendas such as the installment of major public facilities in their neighborhood, changes in district names and boundaries, as a revised law on resident`s vote took effect yesterday.

The voting age has also been lowered from 20 to 19 under the new law.

All notices on resident`s votes will come in Korean and English from now on, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said.

Some 63,697 overseas Koreans had filed their residence reports here as of November last year. The population of 19-year-olds in the country was around 620,000 at the general election in April last year.

Ever since the resident`s vote system was introduced in 2004, three such votes have taken place in Jeju, Cheongju and Gyeongju.

By Kim So-hyun



(sophie@heraldm.com)