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South Korea license plate: Motorcycle city

Issued today Documented since 2009. Motorcycle plates, issued by 국토교통부 (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, MOLIT). One of 21 South Korea license plates.

South Korea license plate, Motorcycle city (documented since 2009), sample 2822
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Format, years and the law

Format
9999, for example 2822 (9 any digit)

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.

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued
Documented since 2009; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Motorcycle: reduced-size series for motorcycles where format/design differs. Issued for motorcycle.
Colours
Characters #1F3F8F Background #F2F2F2
Size
210 × 115 mm · every country's size
About this plate
THE CITY-NAMED MOTORCYCLE PLATE, white with BLUE characters, the only blue-lettered plate in the Korean system, and the only current plate that names a district rather than just a province. From 20 March 2026 it is no longer the default: Article 2(2)3 keeps it alive only where mounting space is short or where lamps and reflectors would clash with the larger Annex 15-2 plate, so it stays OPEN rather than ended.
About the format
Digit skeleton only, and this series elides THREE hangul elements: the printed mark is 서울 중 over 가1234, a two-syllable provincial authority mark, a one-to-three-syllable city/county/district name, then a hangul use syllable and the four-digit serial. Only the four digits survive into the pattern.

Legal basis and sources

  1. Annex 13 drawing: 이륜자동차 번호판(시·군·구의 명칭이 한 자리인 경우) 210x115 mm, line 1 서울 중 at 20 mm, line 2 가1234 at 51 mm https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=158474425
  2. Annex 14 drawing, two-syllable local name, sample 서울 관악 / 가1234 https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=158474431
  3. Annex 15 drawing, three-syllable local name https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=158474437
  4. Art. 2(2)3 (when this plate may still be used), Art. 4(2) proviso (white ground, BLUE characters), Art. 5(3) (the 28-syllable set), Art. 6 main clause (provincial mark plus city/county/district name) https://www.law.go.kr/DRF/lawService.do?OC=test&target=admrul&ID=2100000256300&type=XML
  5. law.go.kr https://www.law.go.kr/DRF/lawService.do?OC=test&target=admrul&ID=2000000009069&type=XML

This plate in your app

The series id is kr-motorcycle-city. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of South Korea's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/kr \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "kr-motorcycle-city")'
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