The Foreign Ministry and the capital will join hands to stem the increasing number of unpaid traffic tickets for diplomatic vehicles, city officials said Monday.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the capital will work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to develop a system that tracks diplomatic vehicles and helps collect any traffic fines they might have.

City officials claim that one diplomatic official has some 4,300 tickets, with only 280 paid.

One diplomatic official left 93 percent of his tickets unpaid before leaving the country while another has yet to pay a single ticket.

According to the capital, the system will begin operation in February 2012 and will oversee the official vehicles of diplomats from some 120 countries here.

The capital decided to develop a system after it found that numerous diplomats have defaulted on their tickets by simply ignoring payment until they leave the country.

Since 2000, the city has issued diplomatic officials 41,259 tickets amounting to 1.6 billion won ($1.4 million) with 392 million won’s unpaid.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)