Short answer. Not immediately, and not by simply reapplying. Article 82(2) of the Road Traffic Act sets disqualification periods during which a licence cannot be issued at all, running from the date of revocation or of the violation depending on the ground. The periods reach five years for the most serious combinations, such as drink-driving that injures someone followed by a failure to take measures and report. There is an important proviso: where the case ends in a disposition lighter than a fine, a suspended pronouncement of sentence, a suspended indictment, or a juvenile protective disposition, a licence may be granted within the period.
What Korean law says
Article 82(2): a person falling under any of the listed cases cannot obtain a driving licence until the period stated for that case has passed. The proviso: where, for those same grounds, a penalty lighter than a fine becomes final, or a suspended pronouncement of sentence becomes final, or there is a suspended indictment or a protective disposition under the Juvenile Act, a licence may be obtained even within the stated period.
Among the listed cases, driving without a licence attracts one year from the violation, rising to five years where a person was injured or killed and the measures required by Article 54(1) and the report required by Article 54(2) were not made. Five years also applies where drink-driving or driving under the influence caused injury or death and those measures and report were omitted.
Article 93(1) is the separate administrative provision under which the licence is revoked or suspended in the first place, with certain grounds requiring revocation rather than leaving it to discretion.
Road Traffic Act, Articles 82 and 93. Act No. 21246, in force from 1 July 2026. Article 82(2) was last amended with effect from 2 June 2026. The specific period depends on which subparagraph applies to your case.
What usually happens in practice
The proviso is the part worth understanding, because it links the criminal outcome to the driving outcome. A suspended indictment or a suspended pronouncement does not merely feel better than a conviction; it can shorten the period during which you cannot hold a licence at all. That is a concrete reason to treat the criminal disposition as worth fighting for rather than accepting the first outcome offered.
The other recurring theme is Article 54. Several of the longest periods are triggered not by the drinking but by leaving without taking measures and reporting. The conduct after the incident, again, does more damage than people expect at the time.
For foreign residents there is a further layer: the criminal disposition can matter to residence status independently of the licence, and the two are assessed separately.
What you should do next
- Establish which subparagraph applies to you. The periods differ substantially.
- Treat the criminal disposition as the lever. The proviso turns on it.
- Never leave the scene. Several of the five-year periods exist for exactly that.
- Check the residence-status consequences separately from the licence question.
Related
DUI in Korea: what foreign drivers are facing
What happens if I refuse a breath test in Korea?
What is a suspended indictment in Korea?
Criminal defence lawyer in Korea
Traffic and driving answers
All Korean law answers
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Written and reviewed by Soobin You, Attorney at YUSU Lawfirm. Former prosecutor. Last legal review: 12 September 2026.