Every car on Korean roads needs insurance, and the rules don’t change for foreign residents. The law requires two coverages, fines owners who go without them, and treats driving an uninsured car as a crime. Everything else on a Korean policy is optional.
This guide covers what the law requires, what the optional parts do, how premiums are set and how insurance history from abroad can count. In Korean, car insurance is 자동차보험.
How we checked
The requirements, limits and fines come from the Motor Vehicle Accident Compensation Guarantee Act (자동차손해배상보장법) and its Enforcement Decree, in the versions in force on October 25, 2026. The rules on premiums and driving history come from an April 2024 press release by the Financial Services Commission (금융위원회), Korea’s financial regulator.
The coverage types come from the government’s legal information service, Easy Law (찾기쉬운 생활법령정보), which follows the standard car insurance policy terms. We didn’t use insurer ads, comparison blogs or forums, and we don’t quote premium prices.
The short answer
- Required: bodily injury liability (대인배상Ⅰ) and property damage liability (대물배상).
- If you skip it: a fine that grows after the first 10 days, and up to a year in prison or a ₩10 million fine for driving it.
- Optional: extra bodily injury cover, cover for yourself, cover against uninsured drivers, and cover for your own car.
- Driving abroad: insurance history from another country can count toward a lower rate, if you prove it.
- Buying a used car: the seller’s compulsory cover carries over to you only for a short window.
What the law requires
Article 5 of the Act says every car owner must carry two kinds of cover. Korean policies call the first bodily injury liability I (대인배상Ⅰ) and the second property damage liability (대물배상).
| Required cover | What it pays | Legal limit |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability I (대인배상Ⅰ) | Someone else is killed or injured | Death: up to ₩150 million per person, with a ₩20 million minimum. Injury and lasting disability: up to amounts set by grade |
| Property damage liability (대물배상) | Someone else’s property is damaged | Up to ₩20 million per accident |
These limits come from Article 3 of the Enforcement Decree. They are what the compulsory cover pays at most, not a cap on what you can owe. Damage above them falls to optional cover or to you.
Driving without it. Article 8 bans driving an uninsured car on the road. Under Article 46, an owner who does can face up to one year in prison or a fine of up to ₩10 million.
Letting it lapse. Insurers must remind you before your policy ends, and must report a lapse to your local government. The local government then orders you to insure the car within a set period of 10 to 15 days. It can also impound the license plates of an uninsured car.
Fines for a gap in cover
Owning an uninsured car brings a separate fine, even if it never leaves the parking lot. Annex 5 of the Enforcement Decree, last amended in September 2026, sets a base fine for the first 10 days and a daily amount from the 11th day, up to a cap.
| Vehicle | Missing cover | First 10 days | From day 11 | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-commercial car | Bodily injury I | ₩10,000 | +₩4,000 a day | ₩600,000 |
| Non-commercial car | Property damage | ₩5,000 | +₩2,000 a day | ₩300,000 |
| Motorcycle | Bodily injury I | ₩6,000 | +₩1,200 a day | ₩200,000 |
| Motorcycle | Property damage | ₩3,000 | +₩600 a day | ₩100,000 |
We read the table as adding the daily amount for each day from the 11th on, so 11 days without bodily injury cover on a car comes to ₩14,000. A car with no insurance at all is missing both, so both rows apply.
Days after your plates are impounded aren’t counted. The authority that issues the fine can cut it by up to half, unless you have unpaid fines, or raise it by up to half within the legal maximum. Commercial vehicles follow different amounts, which this guide doesn’t cover.
Use the calculator below to estimate a fine for a non-commercial car or a motorcycle.
Uninsured car fine estimator
Source: Enforcement Decree of the Motor Vehicle Accident Compensation Guarantee Act, Article 36 and Annex 5 (amended September 15, 2026). Last checked: October 25, 2026. The result is our calculation from that table. The authority that issues the fine decides the actual amount and can adjust it.
The optional coverages
A full Korean policy usually bundles the two required parts with up to four optional ones. Easy Law describes all six using the standard policy terms.
- Bodily injury liability II (대인배상Ⅱ): pays what’s left when someone else’s death or injury costs more than bodily injury liability I covers.
- Personal injury (자기신체사고): pays when the insured person is killed or injured.
- Uninsured motorist (무보험자동차에 의한 상해): pays when an uninsured vehicle kills or injures the insured person.
- Own vehicle damage (자기차량손해): pays for damage to your own car.
The required parts only pay up to the legal limits above. Optional cover is how you protect against costs beyond them, and against damage to yourself and your own car. When you compare quotes, check which of these each one includes.
Signing up as a foreign resident
Article 24 of the Act says an insurer can’t refuse to sell the compulsory cover, except for reasons set in the Enforcement Decree. There are three: the car hasn’t had its required inspection, it’s banned from the road, or the applicant clearly hid or misstated something important about the risk.
Being a foreign resident isn’t one of them. If insurers see a driver as high risk, the Act lets several of them share the policy, and they must explain how that works and what it costs.
This rule covers the compulsory parts only, not the optional ones.
Two records that set your premium
Korean premiums depend on two separate records, and foreign history only feeds one of them. The Financial Services Commission calls them the accident grade (우량할인·불량할증등급) and the insurance history rate (보험가입경력요율).
The accident grade runs from 1 to 29, and higher grades pay less. New policyholders start at grade 11, claim-free years move you up and accidents move you down. In the regulator’s reference rates, grade 11 pays 82.8% of the base premium, grade 29 pays 30% and grade 1 pays 200%.
If your own policy has ended more than three years before you sign up again, your old grade no longer resets straight to 11. Since August 1, 2024, grades 15 to 29 drop by three, and grades 12 to 14 go back to 11. Grades 9 and 10 keep their place, and grades 1 to 8 come back at grade 8.
The insurance history rate rewards time spent insured. A new policyholder pays a higher rate, which comes down each year for up to three years. For a mid-size or larger personal car, the reference rate is 138.1% of the base in the first year. It falls to 115.3% in the second, 110.3% in the third and 100% after three years.
Both sets of figures are reference rates from the Korea Insurance Development Institute, quoted in the regulator’s release. Each insurer’s actual rates can differ.
Getting credit for driving abroad
The regulator’s April 2024 release lists driving records that count toward the insurance history rate even without a Korean policy in your name. One of them is car insurance held abroad. The release lists it under the history rate, not the accident grade.
| Driving record | Documents | Issued by |
|---|---|---|
| Car insurance held abroad | Overseas insurance certificate, entry and exit records | The foreign insurer; a community service center |
| Long-term rental car (not daily or hourly rental) | Rental contract naming you, proof of rent payments | The rental company |
The release says to talk to your insurer’s call center or agent first and then apply. It names the foreign insurer as the source of the insurance certificate, and a community service center for the entry and exit records (출입국사실증명).
The long-term rental item was added in the 2024 release. It can help if you’ve driven a long-term rental car in Korea before buying one.
Insurance when you buy a used car
A used car’s policy doesn’t simply pass to the buyer. Easy Law says the seller must notify their insurer, and the policy transfers only if the insurer agrees. If the insurer doesn’t answer within 10 days of the notice, it’s treated as agreeing.
The compulsory part is the exception. Article 26 of the Act says the buyer takes over the seller’s compulsory cover from the day they pay and take the car. It lasts until the deadline to register the transfer, or until the buyer takes out their own compulsory cover if that comes first. Optional cover doesn’t carry over automatically, so arrange your own policy before you drive away.
If you file the transfer online, Car365 also checks that your policy names you as the insured and starts from the transfer date. Being only a named driver on a family policy doesn’t qualify. Our guide to buying a used car in Korea walks through that transfer and the papers each side needs.
Comparing quotes
Insurance Damoa (보험다모아, e-insmarket.or.kr) is a comparison site run by Korea’s insurance industry associations. It covers many products, including car insurance. Its FAQ notes car comparison is for personal-use cars and that cars over 20 years old can’t be compared. The site itself says final terms come from each insurer.
The site is in Korean, and we couldn’t confirm whether foreign residents can complete its identity check, so your insurer may be the easier route. When you call an insurer, have your alien registration details and car registration ready, and ask how they handle overseas insurance history.
Before you drive
- Get bodily injury liability I and property damage liability in your name before the car moves.
- Decide which optional coverages you want, especially bodily injury liability II.
- Ask your Korean insurer which documents it accepts for overseas history, then get the certificate from your foreign insurer.
- If you’re buying a used car, line up your own policy before the transfer.
- Put the renewal date in your calendar so the cover doesn’t lapse.
Rules change, and your insurer and local government make the decisions in your case. Our guide to car tax in Korea for foreigners covers the acquisition tax you pay when you register a car and the yearly car tax after that.
Last checked: October 25, 2026. Sources: Motor Vehicle Accident Compensation Guarantee Act, Articles 5, 6, 8, 24, 26 and 46 (Korean Law Information Center, in Korean); Enforcement Decree of the same Act, Articles 3, 17 and 36 and Annex 5 (in Korean); Financial Services Commission press release of April 2, 2024 on driving history rules (in Korean); Easy Law, pages on mandatory car insurance and on insurance when buying a used car (in Korean); Car365 help page on insurance checks for online transfer (in Korean); Insurance Damoa (in Korean).
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