How Korean addresses work

Korea switched to a road-name address system (도로명주소) in 2014. You will still see the older lot-number addresses (지번주소) on some signs and documents, but delivery apps, maps and government services all accept road-name addresses, so that is the one to use.

The order: from big to small

A Korean address starts with the largest area and ends with the smallest:

1. City or province (시/도), e.g. 서울특별시 (Seoul)
2. District (시/군/구), e.g. 중구 (Jung-gu)
3. Road name, e.g. 명동8길 (Myeongdong 8-gil)
4. Building number, e.g. 22
5. Unit (동/호), e.g. 101동 1203호

서울특별시 중구 명동8길 22

In English the order is reversed, from small to big:

22 Myeongdong 8-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04536

Road types: daero, ro and gil

• 대로 (-daero): a large boulevard with 8 or more lanes.
• 로 (-ro): a main road with 2 to 7 lanes.
• 길 (-gil): a smaller street. A number before 길 means it branches off a bigger road. For example, 퇴계로10길 (Toegye-ro 10-gil) is a side street off 퇴계로 (Toegye-ro).

Building numbers tell you the distance

Building numbers count from the start of the road, with odd numbers on the left and even numbers on the right. The number goes up roughly every 10 meters, so building 126 is about 1.2 km from where the road begins.

지하, written as B in English, means an underground entrance such as a subway station: 퇴계로 지하126 becomes B126 Toegye-ro.

Apartments and rooms: 동 and 호

Apartment complexes have several buildings. 동 (dong) is the building and 호 (ho) is the unit. 101동 1203호 means building 101, unit 1203 (12th floor). In English it is usually written as 101-1203. In a hotel, write your room number, e.g. 1203호.

"동" is also used for neighborhoods, like 명동 (Myeong-dong), but you do not need the neighborhood in a road-name address.

Postal codes

Korean postal codes have 5 digits, for example 04536. Korean forms often ask for it in a separate box.

How to find the address where you are

Look for the small plate on the building wall showing the road name and building number. Take a photo of it with Korean Address Helper and you will get the full Korean address, the English address and the postal code, ready to copy.