In short: Korea sets the legal drunk-driving threshold at 0.03% blood alcohol concentration (BAC) — lower than in many countries. Criminal penalties escalate sharply with BAC level and with repeat offenses, and are separate from administrative license suspension or revocation, which follows its own set of rules. Refusing a breath test is its own crime and carries its own license consequences, even if you were never over the limit.
The threshold: 0.03% BAC
Under the Road Traffic Act, no one may drive a motor vehicle (including certain construction machinery), a tram, or a bicycle while intoxicated (Road Traffic Act, Article 44(1)). The law defines “intoxicated” for this purpose as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.03% or higher (Road Traffic Act, Article 44(4)).
A police officer who has reasonable grounds to believe a driver is intoxicated — or who considers it necessary for traffic safety — can require a breath test, and the driver is legally required to comply (Road Traffic Act, Article 44(2)). If a driver disputes the breath test result, a second test using a blood sample can be conducted with the driver’s consent (Road Traffic Act, Article 44(3)).
Since December 3, 2024, the law also prohibits “acts of interfering with a breath test” — for example, drinking more alcohol or using medication after driving, specifically to make a later test less accurate (Road Traffic Act, Article 44(5)). This is treated as seriously as refusing the test outright.
There is no separate legal allowance for “a small amount” of alcohol. The law does not measure drinks, only BAC at or above 0.03%.
Criminal penalties — Article 148-2
The Road Traffic Act splits criminal penalties for drunk driving into a few different situations. The most common one — a first-time violation of the 0.03% threshold — is set out in Article 148-2(3), with three BAC bands:
| BAC level | Penalty |
|---|---|
| 0.03% or higher, under 0.08% | Up to 1 year imprisonment, or a fine of up to ₩5,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(3)3) |
| 0.08% or higher, under 0.2% | 1 to 2 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩5,000,000 to ₩10,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(3)2) |
| 0.2% or higher | 2 to 5 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩10,000,000 to ₩20,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(3)1) |
Refusing a breath test, or interfering with one after driving, is punished separately and is not tied to a specific BAC reading:
| Conduct | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Refusing a breath test despite reasonable grounds to believe you were intoxicated | 1 to 5 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩5,000,000 to ₩20,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(2)1) |
| Interfering with a breath test after driving (Article 44(5)) | 1 to 5 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩5,000,000 to ₩20,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(2)2) |
If you have already been convicted (a fine or heavier sentence) for violating Article 44(1), (2), or (5), and you violate it again within 10 years of that sentence becoming final — even if the earlier sentence has since lapsed — the penalties are heavier still, under Article 148-2(1):
| Repeat-offense situation | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Second violation of the 0.03%–0.2% BAC range (Article 44(1)) | 1 to 5 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩5,000,000 to ₩20,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(1)3) |
| Second violation at 0.2% BAC or higher (Article 44(1)) | 2 to 6 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩10,000,000 to ₩30,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(1)2) |
| Second refusal of a breath test, or second breath-test interference (Article 44(2) or (5)) | 1 to 6 years imprisonment, or a fine of ₩5,000,000 to ₩30,000,000 (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(1)1) |
A note on sourcing: the Korean text of Article 148-2 currently in force (effective from July 1, 2026) also includes paragraphs (4), (5), and (6), added April 1, 2025, covering repeat and first-time offenses for driving under the influence of drugs (Article 45). The official English translation available at the time of writing had not yet been updated to reflect that April 2025 amendment, so if you are reading the English version of Article 148-2 directly, be aware it may be missing those paragraphs.
License suspension or revocation — Article 93
Criminal punishment and losing your driver’s license are two separate tracks. The Road Traffic Act gives the police commissioner of a City/Do police agency the power to suspend a license for up to one year, or revoke it outright, when a driver falls into certain categories (Road Traffic Act, Article 93(1)). Drunk driving is explicitly one of them (Road Traffic Act, Article 93(1)1), and so is refusing a breath test despite reasonable grounds to suspect intoxication (Road Traffic Act, Article 93(1)3), and interfering with a breath test after driving (Road Traffic Act, Article 93(1)3-2).
The detailed thresholds for suspension versus revocation, and the demerit-point system behind them, are set out in the Enforcement Rule of the Road Traffic Act (Attachment 28). Based on that attachment:
- BAC 0.03% to under 0.08%: treated as 100 demerit points, which corresponds to a 100-day license suspension.
- BAC 0.08% or higher: license revocation.
- A repeat drunk-driving violation (having previously violated the 0.03% threshold, or previously refused a test, or previously interfered with a test, and then driving drunk again): license revocation.
- Causing a death or injury accident while over the 0.03% threshold: license revocation.
- Refusing a breath test, or interfering with a breath test after driving: license revocation.
Attachment 28 also allows a mitigation (reduction from revocation to a lesser suspension) in limited cases — for example, where driving is essential to a family’s livelihood, or the driver is a model driver with three or more years of traffic volunteer service — but only if none of the following apply: BAC over 0.1%, an injury accident while driving drunk, refusing or fleeing a test or assaulting the officer conducting it, three or more injury accidents in the preceding five years, or a prior drunk-driving record in the preceding five years.
Scheduled change (verified against the Korean text): an amendment to Attachment 28 promulgated on August 24, 2026 takes effect on February 24, 2027. From that date the last condition reads “a drunk-driving record since June 30, 2001” instead of “in the preceding five years”, so any past drunk-driving record will block mitigation. This page will be updated when the change takes effect.
Three common misunderstandings
“One or two drinks won’t put me over the limit.” The law does not count drinks — it measures blood alcohol concentration directly, and the legal threshold is 0.03% (Road Traffic Act, Article 44(4)), which is low compared to many other countries. How quickly a given amount of alcohol raises your BAC varies by body weight, food intake, and time elapsed, so there is no fixed “safe” number of drinks written into the law.
“Refusing the breathalyzer keeps me out of trouble.” Refusing a breath test when an officer has reasonable grounds to suspect intoxication is its own separate crime, with its own prison and fine range (Road Traffic Act, Article 148-2(2)1), and its own license revocation (Road Traffic Act, Article 93(1)3). It does not avoid punishment — it adds to it.
“Bicycles don’t count.” Article 44(1) explicitly lists bicycles alongside motor vehicles and trams. The heavy criminal penalties in Article 148-2 are limited to motor vehicles and trams, but drunk cycling has its own, lighter penalty: a fine of up to ₩200,000, short detention, or a minor fine (Road Traffic Act, Article 156(11)). Refusing a breath test while cycling is treated the same way (Road Traffic Act, Article 156(12)).
Year-end enforcement
Traffic police in Korea generally increase checkpoints and enforcement around year-end and holiday periods, when social drinking is more common. The rules above — the 0.03% threshold, the criminal penalty bands, and the license consequences — apply the same way regardless of the time of year; there is no seasonal exception in the statute.