The National Pension is a system designed to provide stability in the lives of subscribers and their families should they reach a certain age, become handicapped because of injury or disease, or in case of death. It operates with payments from subscribers and government funding, and is operated by the national government.
Qualified Persons
Registered foreign nationals living in Korea who are between the ages of 18 and 60 must join. If you have a set place of employment, subscribe to the National Pension through your place of work. The following foreign nationals are not required to join.
- Persons who have overstayed their period of sojourn.
- Persons with visa types D-1 (Culture/Art), D-2 (Student), D-3 (Industrial Trainee), D-4 (General Trainee), F-1 (Visiting and Joining Family), F-3 (Dependent Family), and G-1 (Other)
- Persons from countries where the law does not require citizens of the Republic of Korea to participate in that country's national pension system. (Status therefore changes in accordance with laws of home country.)

Procedures for Joining
- If your employer is part of the National Pension, you may apply through your place of employment. This requires submitting (to your employer) copies of your written report of aquisition of qualification and a photocopy of your Certificate of Alien Registration.
- If you are not going to apply through your employer and will instead subscribe as an individual insured person, then you need to go directly to a local office of the National Pension Corporation. You will need to submit an alien individual insured person's monthly income report.

Benefit Payments
When a foreign national satisfies any of the conditions for receiving their pension, such as age, handicap, or the death of a family member that was subscribed with the National Pension, he receives the pension in exactly the same way as a Korean citizen. The only exception is that a foreigner's pension may be received in a single lump-sum payment, provided that the foreigner's home country's laws also allow citizens of the Republic of Korea to receive lump-sum payments.
Pension Payments, Etc.
The rate of payment for subscribers to the National Pension is, as of July 2002, 6% of a person's income. This percentage will increase gradually to 9% by July 2005. You may read about the National Pension system at the National Pension Corporation's homepage (www.npc.or.kr) or by calling 1355 (with no prefix) for one of the 74 local National Pension Corporation's offices.

Source: Korea Immigration