For the first time in over eight years, I could find loan shark stickers all over telephone poles in some of the more expensive neighborhoods around Apkujong-dong. That and the JoongAng Ilbo article tell me that loan sharking is big business in Seoul nowadays.
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Now you know why used car salesmen don’t have a shortage of new cars on their lots (all repos from ‘capital’ firms).
What’s interesting — to me, at least — is that repossession of a car is made much more difficult by the existence of the so-called “possessory right” under Korean law. In essence, even if the car does not belong to you (for example, if you stole it from me, or if the contract between us reserves title until I’m paid in full), when it’s in your possession I don’t have the right to take it back. It is, in fact, a crime for me to undertake self-help measures. Instead, I’m supposed to go to court to get an enforcement judgment, and then enlist the services of the “sheriff” to collect the property. But these guys want to be bribed to do their jobs, and have little appetite for conflict and beg off once it gets messy. Therefore, creditors almost inevitably have to enlist extra-legal services when confronted with refusenik debtors.
Yet another creditor-friendly provision of Korean law that hampers ordinary folks’ access to reasonably-priced credit from professional businessmen instead of roughnecks.
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[...] Elgin beat me to this little gem in the Jooang-ang, but I wanted to look up the right number first. [...]