With the death of Kim Sin-yeol, who had been known as the "last resident of Dokdo," Dokdo now has no residents with resident registration. Kim was the only full-time resident with an address on Dokdo. As news spread that the resident registration transfer application by Kim's daughter and son-in-law was rejected in this situation, attention is focusing on the background.
According to North Gyeongsang Province's Ulleung County and others on the 11th, Kim, who had difficulty moving due to old age and other reasons, had been staying at her daughter's home in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and died of old age on the 2nd. She was 88. During her lifetime, Kim settled on Dokdo in the late 1960s with her husband, the late Kim Seong-do, who was called the "Dokdo village head," and made a living by fishing.
After her husband died in 2018, Kim succeeded him as village head and kept the island alone, but she came ashore in 2020 after Typhoon "Haishen" damaged the Dokdo resident quarters. The quarters were restored in 2021, but Kim ultimately could not return.
After Kim came ashore, her family filed a resident registration transfer to Dokdo, but it was rejected. After Kim Seong-do died, Kim's daughter and son-in-law tried to move their address to the Dokdo resident quarters, saying they would live with and care for the elderly mother, but Ulleung County did not accept it.
At the time, the Ulleung-eup office rejected the transfer application, saying, "The couple did not go through the procedure of obtaining approval for full-time residence in the Dokdo resident quarters from the Dokdo Management Office." Afterward, the couple applied to the Dokdo Management Office for approval, but they received the response that "there are no plans to select additional full-time residents of Dokdo unless special circumstances arise, and any future process to add full-time residents of Dokdo would require consultations with relevant agencies."
In protest, the couple filed a lawsuit with the Daegu District Court against the Ulleung County Dokdo Management Office and the Ulleung-eup chief, seeking to cancel the rejection of their application for approval to reside full-time in the Dokdo resident quarters. However, the court dismissed it for lack of procedural requirements.
The reason a resident registration transfer to Dokdo is not easy is to prevent cases of moving an address for symbolic reasons without the intention to actually reside. Under the Resident Registration Act, an address transfer presupposes actual residence, but Dokdo has little living infrastructure, making full-time living virtually difficult. It is also designated as a natural monument, so development and residence are strictly restricted.
Currently, about 40 people, including members of the Dokdo security police unit and staff of the Ulleung County Dokdo Management Office, are stationed on Dokdo. However, they are personnel who stay for a set period to perform duties, not residents who live there with their resident registration on Dokdo.
Ulleung County is reviewing its future response regarding the vacancy of Dokdo residents. Some say that there needs to be a full-time resident to maintain the symbolism that Dokdo is an island where actual residents live.