[News Terms] The 'Social Disaster' Pleading for Recognition of Jeonse Fraud

'Disaster' refers to damage to human life or property caused by changes in natural phenomena such as typhoons, floods, heavy rain, droughts, and earthquakes, or by artificial accidents of a scale determined by the president, such as fires, collapses, and environmental pollution accidents. Among disasters, natural phenomena-related calamities are called 'jaehae (災害)' or 'jaeang (災殃)', while accidents caused by human error, intent, or negligence are sometimes referred to as 'injae (人災)'. Here, jaehae refers to damage caused by natural phenomena such as typhoons, floods, heavy rain, droughts, and earthquakes.

Disasters are classified into 'natural disasters' and 'social disasters' according to the 'Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety'. Natural disasters are damages caused by natural phenomena such as typhoons, floods, heavy rain, strong winds, storms, tidal waves, heavy snow, lightning strikes, droughts, earthquakes, yellow dust, massive algal blooms, tides, volcanic activity, and other similar natural phenomena.

Social disasters are defined as damages of a scale determined by presidential decree caused by fires, collapses, explosions, traffic accidents (including aviation and maritime accidents), chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) accidents, environmental pollution accidents, paralysis of national infrastructure systems such as energy, communications, transportation, finance, medical care, and water supply, as well as damages caused by infectious diseases under the 'Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act' or livestock infectious diseases under the 'Livestock Epidemic Prevention Act'.

A rally of the 'Michuhol-gu Jeonse Fraud Victims Countermeasure Committee.'
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Social disasters include the Sewol ferry disaster, MERS infectious disease, COVID-19, the Gwangju apartment collapse, large-scale wildfires, and the recent Itaewon disaster. In the case of jeonse fraud, if the government analyzes the causes and discovers institutional or policy problems, there is a possibility it may be recognized as a social disaster. If recognized as a social disaster, the government can exercise subrogation rights against the perpetrators and receive partial support for the damage costs.

Ahn Sang-mi, Chairperson of the Michuhol-gu Jeonse Fraud Damage Countermeasures Committee, appealed, "Only when it is recognized as a social disaster caused by government policy failure can proper measures be found," adding, "The government should take the lead in investigating the incident, compensate the victims first, and then claim subrogation rights against the perpetrators and recover hidden assets."

Lee Kang-hoon, Chairperson of the Civil Economy Committee of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (and lawyer), argued, "This damage occurred due to structural information asymmetry in the housing lease market. In such a market, no matter how smart the tenant is, they are bound to be defrauded," and stated, "If the government does not intervene in this situation, there is no reason for the government to exist."