New Car License Plates Featuring Taeguk Pattern and 'KOR' to Be Introduced Next Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] Starting from the 1st of next month, an 8-digit reflective film-type vehicle license plate featuring the Taegeuk pattern and national abbreviation characters will be introduced.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 21st that from the 1st of next month, an 8-digit reflective film-type license plate will be additionally introduced, allowing consumers to choose according to their preferences.

The newly introduced reflective film-type license plates can incorporate national symbols, national abbreviation characters, and holograms that cannot be applied to the existing paint-type license plates.

This design is difficult to imitate, helping to prevent issues caused by unauthorized vehicles or cloned cars through license plate forgery or alteration in advance.

The reflective film-type license plate design uses blue, which contrasts most clearly against a white background. It applies the Taegeuk pattern symbolizing our national flag, and includes 'KOR', the abbreviation of the Republic of Korea in English.

The film-type license plate using the principle of retro-reflection is a method adopted by major countries such as Europe and the United States. It is highly visible at night, helping to reduce traffic accidents.

Currently, three domestic companies?Mirae Nanotech, Reflomax, and HJ?have completed the development of retro-reflective film.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport restructured the license plate system from 7 digits to 8 digits last September to expand the registration number capacity for non-commercial passenger cars, which had reached saturation due to the rapid increase in vehicle registrations.

New registrants and owners of existing 7-digit license plates can visit the nearest vehicle registration office to replace their plates with 8-digit license plates (either film-type or paint-type). Owners of 8-digit paint-type license plates can also switch to film-type without changing their numbers.