The Korean social security system provides a wide range of benefits including retirement, survivors and disability benefits. To qualify for Korean benefits, a worker must meet minimum length-of-coverage or recency-of-work requirements that vary depending on the type of benefit.

The social security Agreement between the United States and Korea:

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  Eliminates dual Social Security coverage and taxation of the same work; and

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  May permit workers (and their dependents and survivors) to qualify for partial U.S. or Korean benefits, even if they do not meet the normal insured status requirements; and

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  May permit entitlement to benefits based on a combination of periods of coverage earned in the United States and Korea.

The Agreement with Korea became effective April 1, 2001.

Periods of U.S. and Korean social security coverage a worker earned prior to April 1, 2001, may be used to establish entitlement to U.S. or Korean Totalization benefits. However, the earliest possible date of entitlement to such benefits is April 1, 2001.

This subchapter provides:

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  A brief overview of the Korean system; and

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  An explanation of the Totalization Agreement provisions; and

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  Instructions on how to take and process claims for both U.S. and Korean benefits filed under the Agreement.