Overview
South Korea maintains one of the most restrictive civilian firearms regimes in the world. The governing statute is the Act on the Safety Management of Guns, Swords, Explosives, etc. (총포·도검·화약류 등의 안전관리에 관한 법률), administered by the Korean National Police Agency. According to the official English consolidation of the Act published by the Korea Law Information Center (law.go.kr, consolidated 30 October 2019), the law regulates the "manufacture, sale, rent, transportation, possession, use, and safety management" of guns, swords, explosives, gas sprayers, electroshock weapons, and crossbows (Article 1). The Act has been amended many times; among the amendments visible in the official text are a wholesale revision by Act No. 12960 (6 January 2015) and a further amendment by Act No. 14839 (26 July 2017).
The Act defines a "gun" broadly. Under Article 2(1), the term covers "a pistol, rifle, machine gun, cannon, hunting rifle, powder-charged gun that can fire metal bullets or gas, air gun ... and parts thereof, such as a gun barrel, lock, etc." This wide definition brings air guns and component parts within the same permit system that governs conventional firearms.
The organizing principle of the statute is prohibition-unless-permitted. Article 10 provides that "no one shall possess guns, swords, explosives, gas sprayers, electroshock weapons, or crossbows without permission," subject to a closed list of exceptions (chiefly licensed manufacturers, dealers, renters, and persons who have obtained a possession permit). There is no recognition in the Act of firearm ownership for personal protection; self-defense is not among the permitted purposes. Reporting by The Korea Herald notes that routine armed carry is confined to "authorized personnel in security-related fields, such as police officers, soldiers and security guards," alongside sport shooters and certain occupational users.
Where civilians can lawfully possess a gun, it is overwhelmingly for hunting or sport, and the categories that are realistically available are hunting rifles and air guns rather than handguns or military-style self-loading rifles. According to the U.S. Library of Congress report "Republic of Korea: Gun Control Laws," South Korea's firearm-control framework traces back to a 1961 statute and has been progressively tightened over the following decades. Independent monitoring by GunPolicy.org (Sydney School of Public Health) likewise classifies South Korean civilian gun possession as heavily restricted, with private handgun ownership effectively unavailable to ordinary citizens.
A distinctive feature of the Korean system is that even lawfully permitted firearms generally may not be kept at home: Article 14-2 requires permit-holders to store guns and ammunition at a place designated by the permitting agency, typically a police station. The combination of a narrow permit system, mandatory police custody, and periodic renewal produces one of the lowest civilian firearm densities in the world.
Ownership & licensing
Civilian firearm ownership in South Korea operates entirely through a police-administered permit system. Under Article 12 of the Act on the Safety Management of Guns, Swords, Explosives, etc., a person who is not otherwise exempt and who wishes to possess a gun must obtain permission according to the type of weapon: for hunting rifles, gas guns, air guns, anesthetizing guns, animal-slaughter guns, industrial guns, and search-and-rescue guns, permission is granted by the chief of the police station with jurisdiction over the applicant's address; for other guns, by the commissioner of the local police agency. Article 12(1) further requires an applicant for a gun permit to submit documents "by which mental illness, personality disorder, etc. of the applicant can be verified."
Eligibility is governed by Article 13, which lists grounds for disqualification. According to that article, a permit may not be granted to a person under 20 years of age (with a narrow exception for competitive target-rifle athletes recommended by the Korean Olympic Committee or a provincial sports council); to a person addicted to narcotics, marijuana, psychotropic substances, or alcohol, or who has a mental illness or epilepsy prescribed by Presidential Decree; or to a person for whom five years have not passed since completing a sentence of imprisonment for a serious offence. Article 13 also disqualifies applicants for five years after being fined for violating the Act itself, and for defined periods following convictions for specified violent crimes or repeat drunk-driving. Beyond these categorical bars, Article 13(2) allows police to refuse a permit to anyone they judge "likely to harm another person's life or property or public safety."
Applicants for hunting rifle, air gun, or crossbow permits must also complete safety education. Article 22 requires prospective permit-holders to receive instruction on the relevant laws and on the safe use, storage, and handling of the weapon before permission is granted, and mandates recurring education every five years (Article 22(5)). Media accounts describe the practical process for a hunting firearm as involving roughly ten steps, including examinations and training.
A permit is not permanent. Under Article 16, permission to possess a gun must be renewed every three years, and the holder must again submit documentation verifying the absence of mental illness or personality disorder. Registration is inherent in the scheme: each permitted firearm is individually authorized and recorded by police, and Article 63(2) requires a person permitted to possess a gun to keep a book of prescribed particulars and produce it on official request.
The most consequential ownership rule is the storage requirement. Article 14-2 provides that a person who obtains permission to possess a gun "shall keep the gun and cartridges or blank cartridges in a place designated by a permitting agency" — in practice a police station. To use the gun, the holder must apply to lift the storage restriction and consent to location tracking of the firearm during the period the restriction is lifted; police may decline to release it where public safety so requires (Article 14-2(2) and (3)). As a result, permitted firearms are held under continuous state custody rather than kept in the home, and handguns remain outside the range of weapons ordinarily available to civilians.
Carry & transport
South Korean law does not provide for the carrying of firearms by private citizens for self-defense, whether openly or concealed. The permit issued under Article 12 authorizes possession for a defined purpose, not general carry, and the movement of a gun outside police custody is tightly circumscribed by Article 17.
Article 17(1) provides that a person permitted to possess a gun, sword, gas sprayer, electroshock weapon, or crossbow "shall not carry [it] with him/her or transport it except for cases where he/she intends to use it for permitted purposes, or any justifiable ground exists." In other words, carriage is lawful only as an incident of an authorized activity — chiefly transporting a hunting rifle between the designated police storage point and a lawful hunting or shooting location — and not as a standing entitlement. Article 17(2) similarly restricts use of the weapon to permitted purposes.
The manner of transport is also prescribed. Article 17(3) requires that guns be stored, carried, or transported "after putting the guns in gun cases or packing them," and expressly provides that the holder "shall not load guns with cartridges or blank cartridges" — that is, a firearm must be carried unloaded. Article 17(4) forbids the holder from remodeling the gun at his or her discretion to alter its performance. Any lawful movement of a firearm is therefore unloaded, encased, and tied to a specific permitted use.
Because Article 14-2 keeps the firearm itself in police-designated storage between uses, the practical window for lawful carriage is narrow. A permit-holder must first apply to lift the storage restriction and, under Article 14-2(2), file written consent to the collection of location information identifying the position of the gun or its possessor during the period the restriction is lifted. Police may refuse to release the weapon where the application is not appropriate, where the holder does not consent to location tracking, or where release is deemed inconsistent with public safety (Article 14-2(3)). The state thus retains supervisory control over the gun even during authorized carriage.
Enforcement of the carrying rules is layered across the penalty provisions. A breach of the core restriction on carrying and transportation in Article 17(1) and (3) is treated as an administrative-fine matter under Article 74, while more serious failures — such as failing to store a gun in the designated place under Article 14-2(1) — are treated as criminal offences under Article 71. Reporting by The Korea Herald reinforces that, outside the security services and the military, lawful possession is oriented toward hunting and sport rather than carriage in public, and that even sport handgun shooting is conducted on-site at regulated ranges rather than through personal carry.
There is no statutory concept of a concealed-carry or open-carry permit for civilians in South Korea. The Act's framework — possession by permit, mandatory police storage, transport only for a permitted purpose, and unloaded, cased movement — leaves no route by which an ordinary citizen may lawfully bear a firearm for protection in public. Where the law does not authorize carriage, the default prohibition in Article 10 continues to apply.
Travel & import
Bringing a firearm into or out of South Korea is controlled by Article 9 of the Act, which makes import and export subject to case-by-case permission. Under Article 9(1), a person who intends to export or import guns or explosives must submit evidentiary documents to and obtain permission from the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency each time; for swords, gas sprayers, electroshock weapons, and crossbows, Article 9(2) places permission with the commissioner of the local police agency. Article 9(3) limits who may obtain such permission to manufacturers, dealers, and renters (with a narrow exception for state agencies and local governments acting for their own use with the Commissioner General's consent), so a private traveler cannot simply declare and import a personal firearm.
The police retain discretion to refuse. Article 9(4) allows the Commissioner General or a local police commissioner to restrict or decline import or export where necessary to maintain public safety, and it flatly bars the import or export of guns that lack an identification plate — the manufacturer's mark identifying the weapon's origin and serial number defined in Article 2(7). A person who imports explosives must additionally report promptly to the local police station under Article 9(5).
A specific channel exists for international competitors and visiting protection details. Article 14 permits temporary import, export, or possession of guns, swords, or crossbows for participation in an "international shooting competition, hunting competition, martial arts competition, etc." Importantly, Article 14(1) limits temporary possession permits to foreigners, granted by the commissioner of the local police agency at the port of entry or exit for a specified period. Article 14(3) separately allows a person entering the country to carry a gun for the protection of a state guest, a minister-level or corresponding foreign figure, or a diplomat, subject to permission from the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency. These provisions accommodate visiting athletes and security teams without creating any general right of importation.
Firearms imported or manufactured for the domestic market are subject to inspection. Under Article 42, designated guns must be inspected by the National Police Agency, and where a gun lacking an identification plate is manufactured or imported, the Commissioner General must order it destroyed or sent back. This reinforces the traceability requirement that runs through the import regime.
Travelers should also note the treatment of imitation and replica guns. Article 11(1) prohibits the manufacture, sale, or possession of items that "look almost like a gun" as prescribed by Presidential Decree, except where made, sold, or possessed for export; a person manufacturing imitation guns for export must report to the local police station (Article 11(2)). Realistic replica firearms that would be unremarkable in some jurisdictions therefore fall within Korean weapons control and can create liability for an arriving traveler.
Taken together, the import framework means that a visitor cannot lawfully bring a personal firearm into South Korea for protection or general use. Lawful entry of a gun is essentially limited to permitted commercial importers, government use, and the temporary competition or protection channels of Article 14, each of which requires advance police permission and full compliance with the identification-plate rule. The Library of Congress country report similarly describes import and export as centrally controlled by the national police.
Hunting & sport shooting
Hunting and sport shooting are the principal lawful purposes for which ordinary civilians in South Korea may possess a firearm. The Act reflects this by singling out hunting rifles and air guns for a distinct permitting track and by attaching specific education and storage duties to them.
Under Article 12(1)2, permits for hunting rifles, gas guns, air guns, anesthetizing guns, animal-slaughter guns, industrial guns, and search-and-rescue guns are issued by the chief of the police station with jurisdiction over the holder's address, rather than by the local police agency commissioner who handles other guns. As with all gun permits, the applicant must satisfy the Article 13 eligibility criteria and, under Article 12(1), submit documentation addressing mental illness or personality disorder.
Education is mandatory and recurring. Article 22(1) requires a person seeking a permit to possess a hunting rifle or air gun (or a crossbow) to receive instruction — before the permit is granted — on the laws governing handling and management and on the practical safe use, storage, and handling of the weapon. Article 22(4) adds that a permit-holder who intends to go hunting must receive safety education as prescribed by Presidential Decree, and Article 22(5) requires refresher education every five years. Article 19 separately bars persons under 18 from handling guns, subject to a narrow exception for target-rifle and crossbow athletes recommended by recognized sports councils.
The storage and use regime bears directly on hunting. Because Article 14-2 requires the gun to be kept at a police-designated location, a hunter must apply to lift the storage restriction for a permitted outing and consent to location tracking during that period. The weapon must be transported unloaded and cased under Article 17(3), used only for the permitted purpose under Article 17(2), and returned to storage afterward. Media reporting describes hunting firearms being deposited at and collected from local police stations around designated hunting seasons, consistent with these statutory duties.
Ammunition and related consumables are handled through separate controls. Article 21(1) restricts the transfer and takeover of explosives (which, under Article 2(3), include cartridges), but Article 21(1)4 permits a person holding a gun permit to take over a quantity of explosives — not more than that prescribed by Presidential Decree — for hunting or shooting, provided the ammunition is obtained from a licensed gun dealer. Article 15 similarly exempts limited quantities of cartridges held for permitted purposes from some possession-permit formalities. The Act does not itself set a civilian magazine-capacity limit; ammunition quantities are governed by Presidential Decree rather than by a figure stated in the statute.
Competitive sport shooting is accommodated both for residents and visitors. The target-rifle athlete exceptions in Articles 13(1)1 and 19 recognize that recognized competitors may possess and handle target rifles despite the general age thresholds, and Article 14 allows foreign athletes to obtain temporary import and possession permits for international competitions. The Korea Herald reports that private shooting ranges allow patrons to fire air rifles and handguns with live ammunition under strict on-site regulation — a model in which the firearm remains under the range's control rather than in private hands. Across hunting and sport, then, the consistent pattern is supervised, purpose-limited access rather than private keeping of firearms.
Penalties
South Korea backs its firearms controls with a graduated scale of criminal penalties set out in Chapter VIII of the Act. The figures below are drawn from the official English consolidation of the Act (law.go.kr, consolidated 30 October 2019).
The most serious offences are addressed in Article 70. Under Article 70(1), a person who unlawfully manufactures, sells, or possesses guns or explosives in breach of the core licensing provisions — including possessing a gun without the permission required by Article 12(1) — is punishable by "imprisonment with labor for not more than ten years, or by a fine not exceeding twenty million won." Article 70(2) increases the punishment by one-half for repeat violations concerning guns, and Article 70(3) makes attempts punishable.
Article 71 sets the next tier: "imprisonment with labor for not more than five years, or by a fine not exceeding ten million won." This tier captures, among other things, a person who fails to store guns and ammunition in the designated place required by Article 14-2(1) (Article 71(1-2)), unlawful dealing in swords, gas sprayers, electroshock weapons, or crossbows, violations of the explosives-use and transfer rules, and disobedience of certain police safety orders.
Article 72 provides for "imprisonment with labor for not more than three years, or by a fine not exceeding seven million won" for a range of offences including breaches of the open-air sale prohibition (Article 8), the handling prohibitions (Article 19), explosives-storage and inspection requirements, and obtaining a permit or license by fraud.
Article 73 sets the lowest custodial tier at "imprisonment with labor for not more than two years, or by a fine not exceeding five million won." Offences at this level include the manufacture, sale, or possession of imitation guns in violation of Article 11(1); the unauthorized use of a permitted weapon or unauthorized remodeling under Article 17(2) and (4); and posting instructions or design drawings for manufacturing guns or explosives online in violation of Article 8-2.
Not every breach is a crime. Article 74 provides for an administrative fine "not exceeding three million won" for lesser regulatory failures, expressly including violations of the carrying and transport restriction in Article 17(1) and (3) and various reporting omissions. This is the provision most directly engaged by a permit-holder who carries a firearm outside the permitted circumstances.
Two cross-cutting rules increase exposure. Article 75 allows a court to impose both imprisonment with labor and a fine concurrently for offences under Articles 70 through 73, rather than choosing between them. Article 76 adds a joint-penalty provision: where an employee or agent commits a violation of Articles 70 through 73 in the course of a juristic person's or individual's business, that juristic person or individual may also be fined, unless it exercised due care and supervision to prevent the violation.
Beyond punishment, the Act provides for administrative consequences. Article 46 requires a permitting agency to revoke a possession permit when the holder becomes disqualified under Article 13 or violates the carrying, use, or remodeling rules, and to take the weapon into custody. Because the statute defines "guns" to include air guns and parts, and because it treats cartridges as explosives, these penalty provisions reach conduct that in some jurisdictions would fall outside firearms law entirely.
Sources
- Act on the Safety Management of Guns, Swords, Explosives, etc. — official English translation, Korea Law Information Center / Korea Legislation Research Institute (consolidated 30 October 2019) (accessed 2026-07-17)
- Library of Congress, "Republic of Korea: Gun Control Laws" (accessed 2026-07-17)
- GunPolicy.org — "Guns in South Korea: Firearms, gun law and gun control" (Sydney School of Public Health) (accessed 2026-07-17)
- The Korea Herald — "Who can carry a gun in Korea?" (accessed 2026-07-17)