Two women, one Social Security number, and a mighty big mess

They have the same name. They were born on the same day in South Korea. And they were both assigned the same Social Security number after they emigrated to the United States.

This bureaucratic bungle has bedeviled Jieun Kim, of Los Angeles, and Jieun Kim, who lives just outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, for almost as long as they’ve been in this country.

Over the past five years, the 31-year-old women have had their banking and savings accounts shut down. They have had their credit cards blocked. They have been suspected of engaging in identity theft.

And, they say, the Social Security Administration has been either unable, or unwilling, to rectify its mistake.

The result has been a level of frustration that LA Kim has likened to “throwing (an) egg onto the huge rock.”

“I’m left with fear about what is in store for me as I have to deal with this terrible aftermath of the Social Security Administration’s mistake in giving one Social Security number to two people,” she said.

Chicagoland Kim said the SSA won’t own up to its mistake.

“This kind of mix-up can happen with Asian people because they have very similar names,” she says she was told by its workers.

But after she recently filled out an application to get a new Social Security number, the SSA sent her the same number she had before and blamed the snafu on computer error.

“This is because the computer recognizes you guys as one person,” Chicagoland Kim says she was told by agency workers.

More ominously, LA Kim said, she was warned by some of the SSA workers she dealt with not to make a fuss about the mistake because it could delay her getting a green card.

“The officer told me that talking about this Social Security number mix-up could result in delaying the green card process that could be done in six months to 2-3 years,” she said.

NBC News reached out to the SSA by email and telephone Wednesday seeking an explanation for how the two women ended up with the same Social Security number, and for comment on the insensitive and threatening remarks the two women say agency workers made. The agency has not responded.

James A. Lewis, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International…