A Foreign Licence Converts to a Class II Ordinary Only, and How Much of the Test You Skip Depends on What Your Country Does for Koreans
Two things have to be true before a foreigner can hold a Korean licence at all. Article 82(1)7 of the Road Traffic Act disqualifies a non-Korean who has not completed alien registration under article 31 of the Immigration Act - unless exempt from it - or, as an overseas Korean, has not filed a domestic residence report. Before that point there is only article 96, which lets a holder of an international driving permit under the 1949 Geneva or 1968 Vienna Convention, or of a foreign licence Korea recognises bilaterally, drive for one year from the date of entry, limited to the vehicle types written on the permit, and not for hire. Conversion itself is built as an exemption from parts of the driving test rather than as an exchange. Article 84(1)3 lets a registered resident, a registered foreigner, a recognised refugee or an overseas Korean with a residence report skip part of the test on the strength of a foreign licence; article 84(2) adds the conditions the licence must satisfy - obtained while staying more than 90 days in the issuing country during that stay, and not a temporary or learner licence - and then makes the size of the exemption turn on reciprocity. Which countries count is not decided by Korea alone: article 52(3) of the Enforcement Decree makes the Minister of Foreign Affairs survey, at least once a year, which countries exempt a Korean licence holder from everything except the aptitude test, and article 52(4) makes the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency publish the resulting list by notice. Attached Table 3 of the Enforcement Decree then sets out what that buys: from a listed country, exemption from the skills, law, inspection and road tests; from an unlisted country, exemption from the skills and road tests only, leaving the written law test to sit. Both rows lead to the same licence - Class II ordinary. Your foreign licence is taken in only where the issuing country asks for it back, or where that country itself takes in a Korean licence when it converts one.
At a glance
- Driving before conversion
- One year from the date of entry, on an international driving permit or a mutually recognised foreign licence
Article 96(1) of the Road Traffic Act. The vehicle types are limited to those written on the permit.
- Commercial driving on that permit
- Not allowed, except a hired rental car
Article 96(2) of the Road Traffic Act, which excludes business vehicles under the Passenger Transport Service Act and the Trucking Transport Business Act.
- How long the foreign licence must have been held
- Obtained while staying more than 90 days in the issuing country, during that stay
Article 84(2) of the Road Traffic Act and article 52(1) of its Enforcement Decree, both of which carry the same parenthesis.
- Licence a conversion produces
- Class II ordinary
Rows 2 and 3 of Attached Table 3 of the Enforcement Decree of the Road Traffic Act. Motorcycle and moped licences are excluded from the conversion rows.
- Tests waived, licence from a listed country
- Skills, law, inspection and road test - everything but the aptitude test
Row 2 of Attached Table 3 of the Enforcement Decree, as amended on 9 June 2026.
- Tests waived, licence from a country not on the list
- Skills and road test only, so the written law test remains
Row 3 of Attached Table 3 of the Enforcement Decree.
- Who decides which countries are listed
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs surveys at least once a year and the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency publishes the list
Article 52(3) and (4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Road Traffic Act. The test is what the other country does for a Korean licence holder, not what Korea thinks of its licences.
- Statuses treated as if from a listed country regardless
- A-1, A-2, A-3, D-7, D-8, D-9, E-1, E-3, E-4, E-7 and F-4, with spouse and unmarried children under 19
Article 52(2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Road Traffic Act, which identifies them by their Immigration Act status names.
- Whether you keep the foreign licence
- Taken in only if the issuing country asks for it, or if that country takes in a Korean licence when it converts one
Article 84(3) of the Road Traffic Act and article 52(5) of its Enforcement Decree. Where it is taken in, it may be sent back to the issuing country at that country's request.
- Minimum age for a licence
- 18, or 16 for a moped
Article 82(1)1 of the Road Traffic Act.
Requirements
- Alien registration under article 31 of the Immigration Act, or exemption from it, or a domestic residence report as an overseas Korean
- A licence issued by a competent foreign authority, obtained while staying more than 90 days in that country during that stay
- Not a temporary or learner licence
- The aptitude test, which no conversion route exempts
- The written law test as well, if your country is not on the published list
In detail
Registration comes before anything
Article 82 lists the people who cannot hold a Korean driving licence at all, and most of the list is about health, age and recent convictions. Subparagraph 7 is about paperwork: a foreigner who has not completed alien registration, and is not exempt from it, simply cannot be issued one, and neither can an overseas Korean who has not filed a domestic residence report. That makes the licence downstream of immigration status rather than parallel to it, and it is why the first year in Korea is normally spent on an international permit under article 96 rather than on a Korean licence.
The exemption is reciprocal, and someone else measures it
Article 84(2) does not list friendly countries. It defines one - a country that exempts a Korean licence holder from every part of its own test except the aptitude check - and then lets the Presidential Decree set a different exemption depending on whether your country is one. Article 52(3) of that Decree hands the measuring to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who must survey at least once a year, and article 52(4) makes the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency publish the resulting list. Two consequences follow for a reader. The list is a notice, not a schedule to an instrument, so it moves without legislation. And it tracks the other country's behaviour: if your country stops waiving its test for Koreans, your own exemption in Korea shrinks at the next survey.
Everything converts to the same licence
Attached Table 3 has two rows for foreign licences and both end at Class II ordinary. Korea's Class I ordinary - the one that carries the heavier vehicles - is not available by conversion at all, and motorcycle and moped licences are excluded from the rows by name. The difference between a listed and an unlisted country is therefore not what you get but what you have to sit for it: from a listed country, the aptitude test only; from anywhere else, the aptitude test and the written law test.
Keeping your old licence is decided by your own country
Article 84(3) says the Korea Road Traffic Authority may take in the foreign licence only where a ground prescribed by Presidential Decree exists, and article 52(5) of the Decree gives two: the issuing country has asked for it, or the issuing country itself takes in a Korean licence when it converts one. The second is a mirror clause, and it is visible from the other side of several records in this corpus - a country that collects the Korean licence on conversion and sends it back to Korea is, by that act, making Korea collect its licences in return.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«7. 대한민국의 국적을 가지지 아니한 사람 중 「출입국관리법」 제31조 에 따라 외국인등록을 하지 아니한 사람(외국인등록이 면제된 사람은 제외한다)이나 「재외동포의 출입국과 법적 지위에 관한 법률」 제6조 제1항 에 따라 국내거소신고를 하지 아니한 사람»Our translation - not official
7. A person not holding the nationality of the Republic of Korea who has not completed alien registration under article 31 of the Immigration Act, excluding a person exempted from alien registration, or who has not filed a domestic residence report under article 6(1) of the Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans.
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«② 제1항제3호에 따른 외국면허증(그 운전면허증을 발급한 국가에서 90일을 초과하여 체류하면서 그 체류기간 동안 취득한 것으로서 임시면허증 또는 연습면허증이 아닌 것을 말한다)을 가진 사람에 대하여는 해당 국가가 대한민국 운전면허증을 가진 사람에게 적성시험을 제외한 모든 운전면허시험 과정을 면제하는 국가(이하 이 조에서 “국내면허 인정국가”라 한다)인지 여부에 따라 대통령령 으로 정하는 바에 따라 면제하는 운전면허시험을 다르게 정할 수 있다.»About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«3. Any of the following persons who hold a driver's license that has been issued by an authorized foreign institution (hereinafter referred to as "foreign driver's license"): a. Any person who completes the registration for residency pursuant to Article 6 of the Resident Registration Act; b. Any person registered as a foreigner pursuant to Article 31 of the Immigration Act (hereinafter referred to as "registered foreigner") or any person exempted from being registered as a foreigner; c. Any person recognized as a refugee pursuant to the Refugee Act; d. Any person who reports his or her residency in the Republic of Korea pursuant to Article 6 of the Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans (hereinafter referred to as "foreign nationality Korean");»The publisher states its translations are for reference only and are neither official nor legally effective. This translation is of Act No. 21016 of 14 August 2025; the Korean text read here is the version in force from 1 July 2026.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«③ 한국도로교통공단은 제1항제3호 및 제2항에 따라 외국면허증을 가진 사람에게 운전면허시험의 일부를 면제하고 국내운전면허증을 발급하는 경우에는 해당 외국면허증을 발급한 국가의 요청이 있는 경우 등 대통령령 으로 정하는 사유가 있는 경우에만 그 사람의 외국면허증을 회수할 수 있다. 이 경우 그 외국면허증을 발급한 국가의 관계 기관의 요청이 있는 경우에는 그 외국면허증을 해당 국가에 송부할 수 있다.»Our translation - not official
(3) Where the Korea Road Traffic Authority exempts a holder of a foreign licence from part of the driving test under paragraph (1)3 and paragraph (2) and issues a Korean driving licence, it may take in that person's foreign licence only where there is a ground prescribed by Presidential Decree, such as a request by the country that issued it. In that case, where the competent authority of the issuing country so requests, it may send the foreign licence to that country.
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(3) When issuing a Korean driver's license to any foreigner who holds a foreign driver's license after exempting him or her from part of the driver's license test pursuant to paragraphs (1)3 and (2), the Korea Road Traffic Authority shall retrieve the foreign driver's license if the State that has issued the relevant foreign driver's license makes a request or if any other ground prescribed by Presidential Decree exists.»The Korean reads 회수할 수 있다 - may take in - and restricts it with 경우에만, only where. This translation reads 'shall retrieve' and drops the restriction, turning a bounded discretion into a duty. Reference only and neither official nor legally effective, in the publisher's own words.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«③ 외교부장관은 대한민국 운전면허증을 가진 사람에게 적성시험을 제외한 모든 운전면허시험 과정을 면제하는 국가(이하 “국내면허 인정국가”라 한다)를 연 1회 이상 조사하고, 그 결과를 경찰청장에게 통보하여야 한다.»Our translation - not official
(3) The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall survey, at least once a year, the countries which exempt a holder of a Korean driving licence from every part of the driving test except the aptitude test (hereafter 'countries recognising the domestic licence'), and shall notify the result to the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency.
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«② 법 제84조 제2항 단서에서 “외교, 공무 또는 연구 등 대통령령으로 정하는 목적으로 국내에 체류하고 있는 사람”이란 「출입국관리법 시행령」 별표 1 및 별표 1의2 에 따른 국내에서의 체류자격이 외교ㆍ공무ㆍ협정ㆍ주재ㆍ기업투자ㆍ무역경영ㆍ교수ㆍ연구ㆍ기술지도ㆍ특정활동 또는 재외동포인 사람과 그 배우자 및 19세 미만의 자녀로서 배우자가 없는 사람을 말한다. <개정 2018. 9. 18.>»The statuses named are A-1, A-2, A-3, D-7, D-8, D-9, E-1, E-3, E-4, E-7 and F-4. Paragraph (5) of the same article gives the two grounds for taking in a foreign licence: a request by the issuing country, and that country itself taking in a Korean licence when it converts one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«2. 국내면허 인정국가의 권한 제84조제1항제3 제2종 보통면허 기능ᆞ법령ᆞ 있는 기관에서 발급한 자동 호, 제84조제2 점검ᆞ도로 차 운전면허증(이륜자동차 항 주행 및 원동기장치자전거 면허는 제외한다)을 가진 사람»Our translation - not official
2. A person holding a motor-vehicle driving licence issued by a competent authority of a country recognising the domestic licence (excluding motorcycle and moped licences). Authority: article 84(1)3 and article 84(2). Licence sought: Class II ordinary. Tests exempted: skills, law, inspection, road test.
The table has four columns - the person, the authority, the licence sought and the tests exempted - and the extraction reads across them, so the row arrives interleaved. Row 3, for a country that does not recognise Korean licences, reads the same except that the tests exempted are 기능ᆞ도로주행 only.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«3. 국내면허를 인정하지 않는 제84조제1항제3 제2종 보통면허 기능ᆞ도로 국가의 권한 있는 기관에서 호, 제84조제2 주행 발급한 자동차 운전면허증 항»Our translation - not official
3. A person holding a motor-vehicle driving licence issued by a competent authority of a country that does not recognise the domestic licence. Authority: article 84(1)3 and article 84(2). Licence sought: Class II ordinary. Tests exempted: skills, road test.
Same four-column interleaving as row 2. The difference between the two rows is the written law test and the inspection test.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«① 외국의 권한 있는 기관에서 제1호부터 제3호까지의 어느 하나에 해당하는 협약ㆍ협정 또는 약정에 따른 운전면허증(이하 “국제운전면허증”이라 한다) 또는 제4호에 따라 인정되는 외국면허증(이하 “상호인정외국면허증”이라 한다)을 발급받은 사람은 제80조 제1항 에도 불구하고 국내에 입국한 날부터 1년 동안 그 국제운전면허증 또는 상호인정외국면허증으로 자동차등을 운전할 수 있다. 이 경우 운전할 수 있는 자동차의 종류는 그 국제운전면허증 또는 상호인정외국면허증에 기재된 것으로 한정한다.»About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«may drive a motor vehicle, etc. with such international driver's license or mutually recognized foreign driver's license for a period of one year from the date he or she enters the Republic of Korea, notwithstanding Article 80(1). In such cases, the types of motor vehicles he or she may drive shall be limited to the ones that are entered in the international driver's license or the mutually recognized foreign driver's license:»Reference only and neither official nor legally effective, in the publisher's own words.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«1. 제1종 운전면허 가. 대형면허 나. 보통면허 다. 소형면허 라. 특수면허 1) 대형견인차면허 2) 소형견인차면허 3) 구난차면허 2. 제2종 운전면허 가. 보통면허 나. 소형면허 다. 원동기장치자전거면허 3. 연습운전면허 가. 제1종 보통연습면허 나. 제2종 보통연습면허»Our translation - not official
1. Class I driving licence: (a) large; (b) ordinary; (c) small; (d) special - 1) large tow truck, 2) small tow truck, 3) wrecker. 2. Class II driving licence: (a) ordinary; (b) small; (c) moped. 3. Learner's licence: (a) Class I ordinary learner; (b) Class II ordinary learner.
This is the list a foreign authority is reading when it names a Korean licence class. The two ordinary classes - 제1종 보통 and 제2종 보통 - are the ones the English translation calls Class I ordinary and Class II ordinary.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The notice of the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency listing the countries that recognise Korean licences was not located or read. Nothing in this record names a country; the Act, the Decree and the table describe a mechanism and leave the membership to that notice.
No bilateral driving-licence agreement was read. Article 84(2) and article 96(1)4 of the Road Traffic Act both refer to such agreements as a class and neither names one.
The fee for a conversion is not stated here. It is set under the Enforcement Rules of the Road Traffic Act, which were not read.
Nothing published by the Korea Road Traffic Authority or the National Police Agency was read. Everything here is from the Act, its Enforcement Decree and Attached Table 3, with the Korea Legislation Research Institute's English translation shown beside the Korean.
- consolidates도로교통법 [시행 2026. 7. 1.]
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처 · consolidated to 2026-07-01
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidates도로교통법 시행령 [시행 2026. 10. 2.]
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처 · consolidated to 2026-10-02
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidates도로교통법 시행령 [별표 3] 운전면허시험의 일부 면제 구분(제51조 및 제52조제1항 관련)
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- reportsROAD TRAFFIC ACT - Statutes of the Republic of Korea
Korea Legislation Research Institute
About this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source