Converting a Korean address to English seems straightforward—until a package gets lost or a visa form gets rejected. These are the ten mistakes that appear most often, along with the correct approach for each.

Mistake 1: Reversing the building number and road name

Korean English addresses put the building number first.

  • ❌ Wrong: Sejong-daero 110, Jung-gu, Seoul
  • ✅ Correct: 110, Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul

Mistake 2: Omitting the district (gu)

The gu (district) is essential for disambiguation—the same road name can appear in different districts.

  • ❌ Wrong: 110, Sejong-daero, Seoul
  • ✅ Correct: 110, Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul

Mistake 3: Writing just "Korea"

  • ❌ Wrong: Korea
  • ✅ Correct: Republic of Korea or South Korea

Mistake 4: Omitting apartment building and unit numbers

  • ❌ Wrong: 152, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (Raemian Apt)
  • ✅ Correct: 152, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul / Raemian Apt, 101-dong, 1502-ho

Mistake 5: Incorrect Romanization of road names

  • ❌ Wrong: Sae-jong-dae-ro, Tehranro, Chungmuro
  • ✅ Correct: Sejong-daero, Teheran-ro, Chungmu-ro

Mistake 6: Omitting the province for non-Seoul addresses

  • ❌ Wrong: 235, Pangyoyeok-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si
  • ✅ Correct: 235, Pangyoyeok-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do

Mistake 7: Using the lot number (jibun) for international shipping

  • ❌ Not recommended: 737, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
  • ✅ Better: Search the address to get the road address (e.g., 152, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul)

Mistake 8: Writing only a building name without the road address

  • ❌ Wrong: Samsung Tower, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
  • ✅ Correct: Samsung Tower, 123, OO-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Mistake 9: Using the old 6-digit zip code

Korea switched from 6-digit to 5-digit zip codes in 2015.

  • ❌ Wrong: 135-080
  • ✅ Correct: 06235

Mistake 10: Cramming apartment details into Address Line 1

Keep Line 1 to the road address only. Put building name, dong, and ho in Line 2 to avoid processing errors.

The Easiest Way to Avoid All of These

Search the address on this service and copy the automatically generated English address. It follows the official Ministry of the Interior and Safety Romanization standards. See How to Use This Site for instructions.