# South Korea license plate: Diplomatic long

> The South Korea diplomatic long license plate: format 999-999, for example 외교 321-678, documented since 2009, car.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/south-korea/diplomatic-long · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [South Korea license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/south-korea) (21 registration series).

![South Korea license plate, Diplomatic long (documented since 2009)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/kr/kr-diplomatic-long/south-korea-license-plate-diplomatic-long.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `999-999` (9 any digit) |
| Years | ~2009 → today (documented from 2009; the format is likely older) |
| Class | diplomatic |
| Issued for | car |
| Plate size | 520 × 110 mm |
| Colours | background #1E2B57; characters #FFFFFF |
| Rear plate differs from the front | no |
| Checking a registration | The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued. |
| Series id | `kr-diplomatic-long` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/south-korea/diplomatic-long) |

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.

| Code | Stands for | English |
|---|---|---|
| `외교` | 외교관용 | diplomatic mission |
| `영사` | 영사용 | consular |
| `준외` | 준외교관용 | quasi-diplomatic |
| `준영` | 준영사용 | quasi-consular |
| `국기` | 국제기구용 | international organisation |
| `협정` | 기타외교용 (협정) | other diplomatic — agreement |
| `대표` | 기타외교용 (대표) | other diplomatic — representative |

Sources:

- [Annex 8 drawing: 주한·외교공관·공관원 자동차 번호판 520x110 mm; horizontal chain 20 · 25.5 · 35.5 · 33.5 · 40 · 11 · 40 · 11 · 40 · 22.5 · 23.5 · 22.5 · 40 · 11 · 40 · 11 · 40 · 33 · 20 summing to 520; sample mark 외교 321-678 with a drawn hyphen](https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=158474395)
- [Art. 4(1)1(나) colour and the seven-word list; Art. 5(1) table 외교용 rows](https://www.law.go.kr/DRF/lawService.do?OC=test&target=admrul&ID=2100000256300&type=XML)
- [law.go.kr](https://www.law.go.kr/DRF/lawService.do?OC=test&target=admrul&ID=2000000009069&type=XML)

## About this plate

THE DARK-NAVY DIPLOMATIC PLATE, and the only Korean plate that prints a separator glyph, a hyphen with its own 22.5 mm cell between two three-digit groups. It is also the only Korean plate whose hangul element is a WORD rather than a syllable and the only one where that element comes FIRST. The colour, 감청색, is given as a Munsell notation (7.5PB 2/8), not a coordinate, so the hex is an approximation and the notation is the claim. Six further diplomatic categories share the plate and are recorded as a variant. No decode of the digits is published: whether 321-678 encodes a mission is not stated in the notice and is not guessed here.

## About the format

The hyphen here is REAL: Annex 8 draws it as a glyph with its own cell between the two three-digit groups.

## Other diplomatic plates here

- [Diplomatic short](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/south-korea/diplomatic-short) (documented since 2009)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/kr/kr-diplomatic-long.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/south-korea?series=kr-diplomatic-long
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/kr` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "kr-diplomatic-long"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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