채윤환
| 2026-08-27 16:23:08
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that the country's lack of legal provisions for registering the births of foreign nationals born in the country is unconstitutional.
In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the state had the responsibility to guarantee the right to immediate birth registrations for all individuals irrespective of their nationality or legal status.
The decision came after an undocumented Vietnamese national filed a petition in 2022 for the court to review the absence of such regulations following the birth of his child in South Korea in 2019.
The child could not be immediately registered locally due to the lack of registration rules and the case was further complicated by the undocumented status of both parents.
Foreign nationals typically register their child's birth in South Korea through their own country's embassy before registering the child as a foreign national with the immigration office.
The child's birth was only registered in 2020 in accordance with Vietnamese law.
The court said nationality should not be a factor in guaranteeing the right to birth registration, noting that children excluded from registration would more likely become targets of crime, such as abuse or abandonment.
It added that a "universal" registration system would not mean granting South Korean citizenship to foreign children born in the country.
In a separate case, the court ruled that a clause in the Military Service Act that requires employers to fire those who refuse to fulfill the country's mandatory military service did not conform to the Constitution.
The decision came after a conscientious objector filed a petition disputing the clause after he was fired from his job over his refusal to fulfill his service.
With the decision, the National Assembly has until Feb. 29, 2028, to revise the legislation.
All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve at least 18 months in the military.
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