The Korean National Police Agency, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Korea Expressway Corporation caught 621 vehicles whose owners had failed to pay traffic fines and highway tolls in a nationwide joint crackdown. The unpaid amount topped 300 million won. Police plan to step up AI-assisted tracking and continue the intensive crackdown on repeat offenders through the end of the year.
The police agency said on the 16th that it had conducted the joint crackdown on habitually delinquent vehicles the previous day together with the interior ministry, the Korea Expressway Corporation and other agencies.
The operation uncovered 8,638 cases of non-payment involving 621 vehicles, with the total unpaid amount reaching 306,767,970 won. Police identified 544 vehicles with unpaid traffic fines worth 240,767,970 won, while the Korea Expressway Corporation caught 77 vehicles with 66 million won in unpaid tolls.
A total of 1,699 people took part in the crackdown, including 331 police officers, 1,273 officials from the interior ministry and local governments, and 95 Korea Expressway Corporation employees. The agencies used an AI system to analyze the travel routes and driving patterns of delinquent vehicles in advance and select enforcement locations. On site, they used automatic license plate readers and other equipment to target vehicles that had gone unpaid for extended periods.
Police have operated joint tracking and collection teams at each metropolitan and provincial police agency since August. The teams include 54 newly hired traffic fine collection officers and 486 existing fine administrators. They investigate the assets of long-term and high-value delinquents and pursue enforced collection through measures such as seizing vehicles and bank deposits and confiscating license plates. Police plan to hire 46 additional collection officers.
With tougher enforcement, police seized license plates from 137,282 vehicles in the first nine months of this year, up 57,005 or 71% from 80,277 a year earlier. Unpaid amounts tied to those vehicles rose 85.3% to 62.8 billion won from 33.9 billion won. Vehicles become subject to plate seizure when related fines of 300,000 won or more go unpaid for more than 60 days.
Police are also pursuing criminal charges against those who drive vehicles registered under false names or vehicles under operation-suspension orders. Through the end of August, they referred 450 suspects to prosecutors through investigations targeting so-called "daepocha," or vehicles driven under another person's registration. Habitual failure to pay highway tolls can also be punished as illegal use of public facilities under the criminal code.
When delinquent owners are confirmed to have violated traffic laws while driving, police will convert the administrative fines into traffic-violation fines (beomchikgeum) under the Road Traffic Act and add demerit points to their driver's licenses. There were 866 such conversions in the first nine months of this year, including 13 license suspensions and six revocations.
According to the police agency, cumulative unpaid traffic fines fell to 1.0522 trillion won at the end of September from 1.1447 trillion won at the end of last year. Police plan to continue joint crackdowns with related agencies through the end of the year.
"We will thoroughly track habitual and long-term delinquents and respond firmly," said Ko Pyung-ki, head of the police agency's Public Safety and Traffic Bureau. "We will work harder with related agencies to closely verify the circumstances of delinquents and strengthen management."