How to Write a Korean Address: Road Names, Postal Codes, and Apartment Numbers

A Korean shopping site finds your building, fills in the postal code, and then asks for 상세주소. That last box matters: it is where your apartment building and unit go. Finding the street address does not mean the form knows which door is yours.

For everyday use, keep three things together: the official road-name address, the exact apartment or room details, and the five-digit postal code. Use Korean in a Korean address-search form when possible. For an English-only form, copy the government's English address result instead of translating the road name yourself.

Address components, with building and unit details only when needed. Illustration, not an address-search screen. Tap to enlarge.

Start with the official Korean address lookup

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety runs Juso, the official English road-name address search. Its current English search accepts Korean search terms and lets you switch a result between Korean and English.

1. Ask your landlord, accommodation provider, or recipient for the address in Korean. A copied text message is more useful than a screenshot you must retype.
2. Search the road name and its building number. If you only have a building name or an older lot-number address, try that and check the matched location carefully.
3. Confirm the city, district, and building. Similar names are not enough.
4. Copy the road-name result and postal code. Then obtain the apartment building, floor, or room details separately from the recipient.

Save both language versions in a private note. Before reusing one, check that it is the address for your current stay, not a previous hotel or apartment.

Road-name address versus lot-number address: why the numbers differ

도로명주소 means road-name address: a road name plus a building number. 지번주소 uses a neighborhood or village name and a land-lot number. They are different ways of describing a location, not two numbers that should be combined. The ministry's comparison of the two systems explains this distinction.

For a public example, Juso's result for the National Museum of Korea gives:

• Korean road-name address: 서울특별시 용산구 서빙고로 137 (용산동6가)
• English road-name address: 137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
• Lot-number address: 서울특별시 용산구 용산동6가 168-6
• Postal code: 04383

Here, 137 belongs with Seobinggo-ro. 168-6 belongs with the lot-number address. Replacing one with the other would create a different, incorrect address. This is a museum example for understanding the format, not an address to use for your own deliveries.

For a normal delivery form offering a road-name result, select that complete result. Do not manually attach the old lot number to it. If a service specifically requests a lot-number address, use the corresponding lot-number result rather than trying to calculate it.

Reading a Korean address from the outside in

A Korean road-name address runs from the larger area toward the specific location: city or province, the applicable city/county/district and town/township, road name, street building number, then detailed address. Not every address contains every administrative level. Copy yours as returned, including an 읍 or 면 if present.

• 시 / 도: city / province. Seoul is not a city inside Gyeonggi-do; do not add Gyeonggi-do to a Seoul address.
• 구 / 군: district / county.
• 대로 / 로 / 길: endings that belong to the road name. Preserve the numbers and letters inside the road name too.
• 건물번호: the street building number, such as 137 in the museum example.
• 상세주소: detailed address, such as the apartment building, floor, or unit.

The ministry's Korean formatting guide keeps the road name together, places a space before the street building number, and uses a comma before the detailed address. A number embedded in a road name is not your apartment number. Copying the official result is safer than rebuilding it from separate words.

Dong, ho, and floor: the three numbers people mix up

In an apartment's detailed address, 동 identifies a building within the complex, 호 identifies a unit or room, and 층 means floor. None replaces the street building number.

For a fictional unit-only example, 101동 1203호 means building 101, unit 1203. It is not a complete address and is not a unit at the museum above. The English detail can be written 101-dong 1203-ho. The ministry also allows a compact form such as 101-1203; the spelled-out version is easier to interpret when space permits. See its English address and detailed-unit rules.

There is another use of dong: a neighborhood name, such as 용산동6가 in the museum address. A neighborhood name in parentheses is not an apartment block number. Do not move it into the apartment field.

If your home has only a room number, enter that actual room number; do not invent a building 101. If it uses a lettered building or a basement designation, ask the manager for the exact written detail. Keep any basement designation attached to the component it describes. Guessing from the floor you think you live on is less reliable than confirming the assigned address.

택배 받을 도로명주소와 동·호수, 우편번호를 문자로 보내 주실 수 있나요?
Could you text me the road-name address, building and unit numbers, and postal code for deliveries?

How to enter the address on a Korean shopping site

Button names and layouts vary, but these field meanings will help you check what a site has actually saved.

1. 주소 검색 / 우편번호 찾기 — address or postcode search: search the base address first. Leave your recipient name, telephone number, and room number out of this search unless the form explicitly requests them.
2. 기본주소 — base address: select the correct search result. Check the city and district before accepting an autocomplete suggestion.
3. 상세주소 — detailed address: add your actual building/unit, for example the fictional 101동 1203호 above. Include a floor when it is part of the address you were given.
4. 받는 사람 / 수령인 — recipient: enter the person receiving the order. Put contact details in their own fields.
5. 배송 요청사항 / 배송 메모 — delivery instructions: use this for an agreed handover request, not as the only place where you store the unit number.

After saving, reopen the delivery address and inspect the order's final destination. A saved-address nickname such as “Home” is only a label; it does not prove the full unit detail is present. Selecting a different search result can also mean you need to recheck the detail field.

For hotels, dormitories, and serviced apartments, ask where deliveries are accepted before ordering. Reception may need your booking name or a designated collection point. Do not assume a courier can go straight to a guest-room door.

Writing a Korean address in English

English address order runs from smaller to larger units. Use the official romanized road name, not a literal English translation. For example, keep Seobinggo-ro rather than turning it into a newly translated street name.

The public museum example would read as follows on separate address lines:

National Museum of Korea
137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu
Seoul 04383
REPUBLIC OF KOREA

For your own apartment, place the verified detailed unit before the base address when writing one continuous address. On a form with separate fields, a practical arrangement is:

• Address line 1: official street building number and road name.
• Address line 2 / apartment / unit: actual building and unit details; include the district here if the form provides no other suitable district field and it is absent from line 1.
• City: the city in the official address.
• State / province / region: the applicable province or metropolitan-level region, following the site's available choices.
• ZIP / postal code: the current five-digit code.
• Country: the dropdown's South Korea / Republic of Korea / Korea, Republic of option.

This is a way to fit the components into a form, not a universal field specification. For Seoul, a mandatory region dropdown may offer Seoul itself. Do not select an unrelated province just to get past validation. Check the completed address preview and contact the merchant if its required fields cannot represent your address.

For international postal items, Korea Post specifically asks for Rep. of Korea at the bottom of the address. Its international addressing guidance also shows a Korean road-name address in English. Follow the sending postal operator's label instructions, including any country-line requirements.

Postal codes: keep all five digits

South Korea's current postal codes have five digits. Korea Post dates the switch from the previous six-digit system to August 1, 2015, in its postal-code overview.

Keep a leading zero: the museum's code is 04383, not 4383. Do not shorten an old six-digit code to make it fit. Search the complete current address again. A postal code alone does not identify your apartment or replace the road-name address.

If a form rejects the correct code, check the selected country first, then remove accidental spaces. If it still expects six digits or drops the initial zero, ask the merchant to correct or manually confirm the address. A made-up code may get the form submitted while leaving the actual delivery problem unresolved.

When your Korean address will not work

The address search returns nothing

Try just the Korean road name and street building number. Remove the apartment unit, building nickname, recipient name, and delivery note from the search. Keep meaningful hyphens and numbers. If you started with an English spelling, ask the recipient for the Korean text.

Check Juso separately. If Juso finds the exact building but the retailer does not, send the retailer its confirmed Korean road-name address and postal code through customer support. Ask whether its address database needs updating or whether manual entry is available. A neighboring building is not a safe substitute.

If the address is absent from the official lookup too, ask the owner or manager to confirm the assigned address; for unresolved official-address issues, contact the relevant local government's road-name address office. Do not assume every missing search result is merely a delayed retailer update.

공식 주소 검색에서는 나오는데 이 사이트에서는 검색되지 않습니다. 주소를 확인해 주실 수 있나요?
The address appears in the official lookup but not on this site. Could you check it?

The building is right, but the app puts the pin elsewhere

That is a map or entrance-location problem, not necessarily an address-format problem. Keep the verified postal address and check the app's entrance pin and handover instructions separately. Our guide to fixing a wrong delivery-app pin covers that next step, including what to send a driver.

The address saves, but checkout still fails

Read the error before changing the address again. A message about phone identity verification, account eligibility, or payment needs a different fix. For first-week shopping difficulties, see Coupang before your Residence Card. A correct address cannot by itself satisfy an identity or payment check.

You notice a missing unit after placing the order

Open that order and check whether its delivery address can still be edited. Do not assume changing the account's saved address changes an existing order. Contact the seller or delivery service with the order or tracking number and the complete correction. Ask for confirmation; whether a change is possible depends on the service and dispatch stage.

If a label has already been issued, make clear that this is a correction to that shipment, not a new default address. Keep the conversation until the destination is confirmed.

A final check before you press “Order”

• The selected result matches the right city, district, and building.
• The street number has not been confused with a lot number or apartment building number.
• The actual dong, unit, and any necessary floor detail survived saving.
• The postal code has all five digits.
• The recipient can be contacted, and the collection location is agreed.

Keep door-entry codes out of general address lines and public screenshots. If access coordination is necessary, use the service's designated private communication channel and share only what is needed. An address should identify the destination; it should not expose your home's security details.

Sources checked September 24, 2026: MOIS Juso live Korean/English search and road-name address guidance; Korea Post postal-code and international-address guidance. Museum address and postcode verified in the live official lookup. Form-filling and troubleshooting checklists are practical editorial guidance; individual merchants and carriers control their own entry fields and shipment changes. This article explains address formatting, not immigration address-change reporting.

Editorial update: October 12, 2026. Replaced the address illustration to keep the real museum example separate from fictional apartment details. Existing address instructions and links are retained.