46.4 billion won in fines for illegal spam went uncollected... 77% overdue for more than 10 years

[Financial News] The government imposed fines for illegal spam but failed to collect 46.4 billion won as of the end of last year, according to figures. At least 90% of the uncollected fines were long-term arrears that had been overdue for more than five years.
There are calls to reassess how long-term arrears are managed by evaluating whether unpaid fines can be collected.
According to data obtained from the Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) by Rep. Han Jun-ho (Democratic Party of Korea), a member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, on the 12th, the unpaid balance of fines for illegal spam stood at 46.376 billion won at the end of 2025.
The collection rate, including accumulated arrears, also remained low. It stood at 5.7% in 2021, 5.3% in 2022, 7.0% in 2023, and 5.0% in both 2024 and 2025.
During the same period, the collection rate for fines assessed in each respective year was 96–107%, but the accumulation of old arrears limited the ability to raise the overall collection rate.
Fines overdue for 10 years or more accounted for the largest share of unpaid amounts by length of delinquency. They totaled 35.865 billion won, or 77.3% of the total. Amounts overdue for 5–10 years came to 7.079 billion won (15.3%), while those overdue for five years or less totaled 3.432 billion won (7.4%).
When long-term arrears are defined as amounts overdue for five years or more, they account for 92.6% of the total unpaid amount.
A large share of long-term arrears had accumulated before collection responsibilities were transferred to the KMCC. In September 2018, the KMCC took over the related work from the Central Radio Management Office of the Ministry of Science and ICT. The arrears transferred at the time, dating from 2002 to 2018, totaled 91 billion won, including 45.7 billion won in administrative fines and 45.3 billion won in criminal and petty fines. The KMCC said the amount included many claims that were difficult to recover because debtors could not be located or had no assets.
Even when collection is difficult, writing off the amounts in the books is not straightforward. According to the submitted materials, under the current Act on the Regulation of Violations of Public Order, a write-off requires certain conditions to be met, such as the five-year statute of limitations expiring or the debtor being declared missing or bankrupt. The materials say that being unable to locate a debtor or the debtor having no assets is not enough to authorize a write-off, leaving even fines with little chance of recovery recorded as unpaid.
Rep. Han called for checking debtors’ assets and whereabouts to identify arrears that can be collected, and for writing off claims whose statute of limitations has expired. He also said it was necessary to consider improving the criteria for writing off long-term arrears that are difficult to handle under the current system.
Rep. Han said, “We should start by distinguishing arrears that can be collected from those that need to be written off.” He added that he would review the state of long-term arrears management and plans for resolving them at the KMCC’s parliamentary audit that day.

[email protected] Yun Hong-jip Reporter