For delivery inside Korea, use the official Korean road-name address and include the building number, apartment or room details, and five-digit postal code. For an overseas form, use the government’s English address result, write the detailed unit first, and end with the postal code and Republic of Korea. Do not translate a Korean road name yourself when the official spelling is available.
Korean addresses can look inconsistent because the same place may be shown as a road-name address, an older land-lot address, or an English version written in reverse order. The safest approach is to start with the official road-name address, then add the exact building or unit information your recipient, hotel or residence uses.
For local delivery, copy the Korean version whenever possible. For international shipping, immigration paperwork or an overseas account, use the official English result rather than inventing a translation.
What information belongs in a Korean delivery address?
A complete delivery address normally needs four pieces:
1. The five-digit postal code
2. The road-name address, including the road and building number
3. The detailed address, such as apartment building, floor or room
4. The recipient name and contact number requested by the shop or courier
Korea’s official road-name system builds an address from the administrative area, road name, building number and detailed location. In Korean, the detailed part follows the building number and is separated with a comma.
A domestic delivery label can therefore follow this pattern:
> (Postal code) City/Province + District + Road name + Building number, Building/Unit
> Recipient name
> Contact number
For example, an apartment detail may appear as 101동 1203호, meaning building 101, unit 1203. Do not leave this out just because the main road-name address already identifies the apartment complex. The building entrance is not the final delivery point.
Should you use the road-name address or the older land-lot address?
Use the road-name address as your default. It is the official format based on a road name and building number, and it is the clearest version for current address searches, forms and delivery services.
You may still see an older land-lot address, called a jibeon address, in rental messages or old business listings. Both can identify the same place, but mixing the road name from one format with numbers from the other can create an invalid address.
If you only have a land-lot address, enter it in the government’s [Road Name Address search](https://www.juso.go.kr/main/engMain) and copy the matched road-name result. Confirm the building name and map location before saving it.
How do you write a Korean address in English?
The official English format runs from the smallest detail to the largest area. A practical order is:
> Apartment building and unit, Building number, Road name, District, City or Province, Postal code, Republic of Korea
For example, the government’s English address search displays its headquarters as:
> 42 Doum 6-ro, Sejong-si, 30112, Republic of Korea
If there is a unit, place it before the street address:
> 101-dong 1203-ho, 42 Doum 6-ro, Sejong-si, 30112, Republic of Korea
Keep official endings such as -daero, -ro, -gil, -gu, -si and -do. They are part of the government’s Romanized address, so changing them to your own English translation can make the address harder to match.
The five-digit postal code is not optional filler. Korea Post uses the current five-digit national basic district number as the postal code, so copy all five digits exactly, including a leading zero.
What goes in Address Line 1 and Address Line 2?
Overseas forms split addresses differently, but this arrangement works for most standard checkouts:
Form Field | What to Enter |
|---|---|
Address Line 1 | Building number and official Romanized road name |
Address Line 2 | Apartmnet building, floor or unit |
City | Seoul, Busan, Sejong-si or the city shown in the official result |
State / Province | Province if the form requires one; use Seoul for Seoul-only forms |
Postal code | The official five-digit code |
Country | Republic of Korea or South Korea, whichever the form provides |
If a form offers only one street-address line, put the unit first and then the road-name address. Do not move the unit into a delivery-note box unless the service explicitly says that note is part of the shipping label.
How do you avoid failed deliveries to apartments and hotels?
For an apartment or officetel, confirm the exact building and unit style with the resident, landlord or contract. Building names can be helpful, but the official road-name address plus the correct unit is more important than a translated complex name.
For a hotel, ask whether the front desk accepts deliveries before ordering. Use the same guest name as the reservation, include your arrival date if the seller provides a delivery-note field, and copy the address format supplied by the hotel. A hotel may refuse refrigerated food, oversized parcels or items arriving outside your stay.
When an app cannot find an English address, search the Korean road name or paste the Korean address from the official result. Keep the Korean version in your phone notes so you can show it to a courier, taxi driver or front desk without retyping it.
Which Korea apps should you set up next?
[Korea Apps Guide](https://budgetwon.com/apps/) — Build a practical app stack for maps, delivery, payments and local services before you need to enter your Korean address at checkout.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Korean postal code have five or six digits?
Use the current five-digit postal code. Korea replaced the older six-digit system with five-digit national basic district numbers in 2015, so a form demanding six digits may be using an outdated format.
Can I write my Korean address entirely in English?
Use English for international forms and overseas senders. For a delivery that starts and ends inside Korea, the Korean address is usually the safest version to copy because local systems and couriers can match it directly.
Where should I put the apartment number?
Put the building, floor or unit in the detailed-address field. In English order it normally comes before the street address; in Korean order it follows the building number, usually after a comma.
Is “South Korea” acceptable instead of “Republic of Korea”?
Yes, if the form’s country menu uses South Korea. The official government address example uses Republic of Korea, but you should select the exact country label available in the form rather than typing a different name into another field.
What if an app cannot find my address?
Search only the road name and building number first, then add the apartment or room in the separate detailed-address field. If that still fails, verify the road-name address and five-digit postal code on the official government address search before contacting the app or seller.