Nearly 90 percent of traffic fines imposed on foreign diplomats in South Korea over the past five years have gone unpaid, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting a police report Tuesday.
According to the National Police Agency's report submitted to the National Assembly, a total of 847 speeding tickets and fines amounting to some 57.5 million won ($49,000) were slapped on diplomatic vehicles here.
However, 87.6 percent, or 50.4 million won, in fines have yet to be paid, the report said.
The Russian embassy had the largest amount of citations, with 145 speeding tickets issued and 12.9 million won in cumulative unpaid fines during the cited period, followed by the Kazakhstan embassy with 35 tickets and the Chinese embassy with 34, according to the report.
The number of parking tickets levied on diplomatic vehicles came in at 13,196, with penalties valued at 528 million won, it noted, adding that 93.4 percent of the total fines have yet to be paid.
"Foreign embassies' common practice of habitual delinquency in fine payments has resulted from a moral hazard as they are given diplomatic immunity," Rep. Lee Eun-jae, who reviewed the report, said in a release.
Diplomatic immunity frees ambassadors and other members of foreign embassies from any form of legal prosecution in the host country. In the case of traffic violations, local governments have no legal means to force foreign diplomats to pay fines, according to legal experts.
"There is no such measure to forcibly collect unpaid fines from foreign diplomats, but making the delinquency records available on the Internet could be effective in inducing them to pay their fines," Lee said.