But folks, we ought to bear in mind that this is a totally different generation that never witnessed first hand the suffering its people endured during Japanese colonization, WWII, or Korean War. I think most gyopos view South Korea as a total joke, and simply came here for a wife that wants to live the American dream back in the States, while escaping from the ever-prying eyes of their parents for a couple years back in America.

I see this dose of reality definitely in order, perhaps it’ll knock some of this smart-ass attitude off their cocky gyopo asses. The “test” ought to be whether or not the Korean government can prove you have Korean ancestory. In which case, the gyopos ought to be forced to either do: 2 or 3 years of military service, or serve as clowns on these English shows on Korean TV for 10 years.

If the Roh administration and the rest of the communists get their way, Korea is ultimately going to have to fend for itself in any future conflicts. The ROK has some serious decisions to make about its immediate future.

–Remort

However, physical discipline has to go on. Until those KATUSAs (Korean conscripts under US leadership, so they don’t have to go through the horrors of Korean army) prove that they can be just disciplined as the ROKs, than I might just reconsider my opinion.

A foreigner who never set foor in Korea couldn’t be married here, so the question simply doesn’t arise.

I was thinking more of the situation where a non-Korean married a Korean national overseas, and that marriage was reported on the family register (through Grandpa or the embassy — take your pick). Would they get issued a number automatically? I would assume not, but who knows for sure? At any rate, it’s not that important at all.

By the way, are foreigners who end up being registered—by virtue of marriage, not blood, and not by becoming residents on visas—also assigned numbers that they may never no about?

Wouldn’t the answer to that depend on the foreigner? After all, under the old hojuje system, a wife is added to her husband’s family register, and striken from her own. So, a female foreigner marrying into a Korean family would presumibly be entered into her husband’s register, while a male foreigner marrying into a Korean family would technically add his wife to his register (except for the fact that he has none). Of course, I’m not entirely sure whether or not numbers were issued automatically in the case of a foreigner who’s never set foot in Korea, while I’m fairly certain that for foreigners who get married in Korea, the alien ID number is used.

Of course, all this is pretty much moot now that the system has been more or less abolished (people still register, but don’t have such a Byzantine system). I would guess that nowadays, the parents of a child would have to register them as a Korean citizen, while the ‘head of household’ couldn’t anymore. Might serve to reduce the number of people who unwittingly enlist in the military just by visiting the old fatherland. Don’t quote me on any of this, though.

Well, I think I would have noticed going through the process of obtaining a 외국인등록증! I’ve never actually lived in the country—just visited repeatedly—so I guess I’m numberless. A touring barbarian, rather than a resident barbarian. I guess it doesn’t matter anyhow, if such a number can’t be used for signing up on Korean websites anyhow—the only practical use to which I’d be able to put it!