There's a wrath for that.

Metropolitician opines:

I wonder if Apple knows just how hard KTF makes it for non-Korean residents of this country to buy its product. Personally, I think the process racist as a mofo, because 1) the requirements do nothing more than unnecessarily against a particular group, because 2) the requirements in question do not even accomplish the goal they were created for.

I wonder if Apple would even care, considering that in Apple's home country (the USA) there are similar restrictions for foreign nationals who are not permanent residents (say, people on student visas or temporary work permits).

In fact, here in Hawaii, I have been asked by more than one student visa holder to allow them to piggyback a two-year iPhone 3Gs plan with AT&T onto my own because the person in question could not get a long-term phone contract (and thus not get an iPhone) without a Social Security number.

So why would Apple care that something not all that different is happening in South Korea? Or possibly Japan, China, Europe, etc.?

I don't mean to single out Metropolitician for this, since it's a topic that many others are complaining about as well. Indeed, it would be annoying to be denied an iPhone on one's own merits, and this kind of thing is why for years I used LG Telecom and told other foreign nationals (kyopo or otherwise) to go with LG Telecom (LG also has English-language service, phone bills if you want it, etc.).

I'm just saying that the road to an iPhone isn't necessarily paved in gold elsewhere, as I've seen first hand, so the idea that this is another case of OinK ("only in Korea," as some Kexpaters liked to say), is rather misguided and not particularly helpful.