Korea's overseas agency chief urges inclusive policy for 7M diaspora

South Korea's top overseas Koreans official called Sunday for the country to treat its 7 million-strong diaspora as a strategic national asset, proposing sweeping reforms on dual citizenship and overseas voting, according to The Korea Times.

The push comes as South Korea confronts an acute demographic decline, and carries direct implications for Orange County's Korean-American community — one of the most economically active diaspora clusters in the United States.

Kim Kyung-hyup, commissioner of the Overseas Koreans Agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Korea Times in an interview published Sunday that overseas Koreans represent a natural answer to the country's population challenges. "While there is ongoing debate about opening our borders to general immigration to address the demographic cliff, the reality requires careful consideration of many factors," Kim said. "In contrast, overseas Koreans offer a much smoother path to social integration due to their cultural and emotional ties with Korea."

About 7 million Koreans live abroad as of 2025, according to the agency. Of those, approximately 4.6 million — 66 percent — hold foreign citizenship, while 2.4 million retain Korean nationality. The Korea Times reported that more than 30 percent of all foreign nationals currently residing in South Korea are returning overseas Koreans.

Kim called for lowering the age threshold for dual citizenship, which under current law applies primarily to those 65 and older or in limited special categories. "Lowering the age threshold for dual citizenship would be beneficial to our national economy," he said, according to The Korea Times. "Other nations are already actively leveraging the capabilities of their diasporas by operating programs like India's OCI."

The commissioner also targeted the overseas voting system, which permits overseas Koreans to participate only in presidential and proportional-representation parliamentary elections. He described news stories about overseas Koreans traveling long distances to cast a ballot as emblematic of a broken system. "That shouldn't be a touching news story — it should be criticized," Kim said. "Under the current system, it is impossible for our overseas citizens to have a high voter turnout. We have made voting far too difficult for them." The agency is targeting 2028 for new mail-in and electronic voting options, according to The Korea Times.

Kim framed the diaspora's cultural and commercial footprint — particularly through K-food and hallyu — as an untapped diplomatic resource. "Overseas Koreans are already expanding Korea's 'economic frontiers' through the global success of K-food and hallyu, or the Korean wave," he told The Korea Times. "If we can effectively organize these communities — much like the Jewish diaspora in the United States — we can build a formidable capacity for public diplomacy."

Kim set out the agency's overarching mandate to The Korea Times. "Therefore, our primary goal is to implement an inclusive, nondiscriminatory overseas Korean policy that prioritizes the embrace of them as a first step," he said.