21 registration series, sourced from 국토교통부 (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, MOLIT) — 자동차운영보험과.
South Korea's plate grammar is set almost entirely by one ministerial notice which publishes everything down to the millimetre — class-code ranges, colour values in CIELAB and Pantone, the cell-by-cell dimension chain of every layout. Every current private plate carries exactly one hangul syllable between its class code and its serial — not a separator but the character that says whether the car is private, a taxi, a rental, or diplomatic. Since 2004 almost no Korean plate names a place.
Type any South Korea registration — valid plates render below, on their real designs.
Try the API
Everything on this page — formats, validity, colours, the renders themselves — is one request away.
GET /v1/plates/kr/match?plate=…
GET /v1/plates/kr/match?plate=123%EA%B0%804568
{ "plate": "123가4568",
"valid": true, "exact": true,
"matches": [{ "id": "kr-noncommercial-8-film",
"render_url": "…svg?serial=123%EA%B0%804568" }] }
Get API access
"Korea went to three-digit class codes in 2019" is a half-truth: passenger cars did; buses, goods and special vehicles kept two digits until November 2021, when a new 998–999 range was created for police cars and fire appliances.
국토교통부고시 제2021-1084호 vs 제2019-423호
Temporary permits of ten days or less ride on a 2.5mm WOODEN board — the sole exception to Korea's universal aluminium standard, and the only plate excused from embossing.
고시 제2025-121호, Art. 2
Most Korean plate colours are one CIELAB or Munsell value. The blue electric-vehicle plate specifies twelve separate Pantone/CMYK pairs — background, pictogram, taegeuk tones, pattern scales — because the whole design is the statutory claim.
고시 제2025-121호, Annex 18
the default series issued to private road vehicles
Pre-2004 grammar, right off the plate: 서울 or 경기 names the registering province, two digits give the vehicle class (01–69 a passenger car), the syllable marks private use, four digits count the serial. Move house and the whole number changed with you.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Two digits of class code — 01–69 means a passenger car — then one hangul syllable from the 32-syllable private-use set (가 through 주), then the serial. Since the 2004 reform, nothing on this plate says where in Korea the car is from.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Same grammar as the small plate, heavier ranges: 70–79 is a bus or van, 80–97 a goods vehicle, 98–99 special equipment, with the syllable still drawn from the private-use set. A private four-tonne truck wears this seven-character decode to this day.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Two class digits (01–69, passenger car), one private-use syllable, four serial digits. The syllable is the only character that says anything about the owner — private, not for hire — and it is the one field a parser must never guess.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
The class digits do the talking: 70–79 bus or van, 80–97 goods, 98–99 special. From September 2019 to November 2021 Korea issued seven- and eight-character plates side by side, so two leading digits after 2019 simply mean "not a passenger car".
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
The 2019 reform in three digits: class codes 100–699 mark a passenger car, a roughly sixfold expansion of the old 01–69 space. The syllable after them still comes from the 32 private-use syllables; the last four digits are only a serial.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
The plate on almost every Korean car since mid-2020: reflective film, a holographic security grid across the face, and a blue left band with the taegeuk and KOR — Korea's answer to the EU band, a decade later, by its own statutory path.
Three class digits (100–699, passenger car), one private-use syllable, four of serial. The blue taegeuk band is construction, not code — the syllable is the law, certifying the car is neither taxi, bus nor rental.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
A leading 7 means bus or van (700–799), 8 means goods (800–979), 980–997 special, and 998–999 an emergency vehicle. These ranges only opened on 1 November 2021, so a three-digit code starting 7, 8 or 9 dates the plate sharply.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Same decode as the film twin: 700–799 bus or van, 800–979 goods, 980–997 special, 998–999 emergency vehicles, then a private-use syllable and the four-digit serial.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
The characters decode exactly like a private car — three-digit class code, private-use syllable, serial. The message is the light-green ground itself: a corporation's passenger car acquired for 80 million won or more. A tax policy, wearing a colour.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
EV-distinct plates or suffixes (German E, CN green plates)
Blue ground says electric; the characters still decode as a private car — class code, then a syllable from the private-use set. Rental EVs are expressly included, so this is the one blue plate where the rental syllables 허, 하 or 호 can appear.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
reduced-size series for motorcycles where format/design differs
The top line is pure geography — the province mark plus the city, county or district name, the only current Korean plate to name one. The syllable comes from a motorcycle-only 28-set: see an aspirate like 차, 카, 타 or 파 and you are looking at two wheels.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
A grammar no Korean car has: the first digit is a vehicle-type code (1–9), then a two-character use code — one private-use syllable plus a digit 1–9 — then the four-digit serial. No place name anywhere: 2026 finished on two wheels what 2004 did on four.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
for-hire vehicles where separately serialized or colored
The only current Korean plate that still says where a vehicle is registered: every taxi, route bus and hire truck carries a province mark that private cars left behind in 2004.
The only current Korean plate with geography: two syllables name the province, two digits the class, and 바, 사, 아 or 자 mark transport business — 배 joined them by 2019 and is popularly read as the parcel-van syllable, though the notice never says so.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Stacked, not shrunk: the top line carries the province mark and the class digits, the bottom line the transport-business syllable (바, 사, 아, 자 or 배) and the serial. Same decode as the long yellow plate.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Decodes like every yellow plate — province mark, two-digit class code, business syllable, serial — just set in 116 mm characters, the largest in the Korean system.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
short-validity plates (transit, awaiting registration)
임 is the first syllable of 임시, "temporary" — a fixed literal, not a use category. The five digits are a permit serial; the red diagonal and the issuing officer's printed title carry the rest of the message.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
Same decode as the long temporary plate: the literal 임 — head syllable of 임시, "temporary" — followed by five permit digits, on the compact blank for vehicles that cannot take the strip.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
A wooden board with a hand-ruled red diagonal, six bare digits, and the permit's expiry date printed on its face — the one Korean plate that is neither metal nor embossed.
The one Korean serial with nothing to decode: six bare digits, no hangul, no use category. Identification rides on the face itself — the permit's expiry date, printed on a wooden board, for permits of ten days or less.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
diplomatic corps (embassy) issuance, usually its own decode
The hangul is a word, not a syllable: 외교 for diplomats, 영사 for consuls, plus 준외, 준영, 협정, 대표 — and 국기, which reads like "national flag" but abbreviates 국제기구, international organisation. What the hyphenated digits encode is nowhere published.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.
The same seven-word decode as the long diplomatic plate, with the word spaced across the top line: 외교 for diplomats down to 대표 for other missions. The two digit groups stay undecoded — no published rule says what they mean.
In the sample, 9 for any digit.