Starting next month, a large-scale crackdown on illegal motorcycles will be conducted, and fines will be tripled.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 2nd, at the National Policy Coordination Meeting, that it has finalized the government ministries' joint "Improvement Plan for Motorcycle Management System" containing these measures.
According to the improvement plan, from next month, focused crackdowns will be carried out on unregistered motorcycles, missing license plates, illegal tuning, unauthorized abandonment, and ghost vehicles. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to announce detailed enforcement plans within this month in consultation with related agencies such as the National Police Agency and local governments.
Fines for unregistered motorcycles will increase from the current 1 million KRW to 3 million KRW, and fines for failure to report major changes will also be raised from a maximum of 100,000 KRW to 300,000 KRW. This is the same level of penalty as for automobiles.
The safety inspection and scrapping system, currently only applied to automobiles, will also be introduced for motorcycles.
The Ministry will first conduct safety inspections for large motorcycles at 59 Korea Transportation Safety Authority inspection centers and plans to expand this to medium and small motorcycles. If a safety inspection is not conducted for over a year, a driving suspension order will be issued, and if violated, local governments will take measures such as compulsory scrapping.
Regarding scrapping, motorcycles will be allowed to be scrapped at about 540 automobile scrapping sites nationwide to reduce unauthorized abandoned vehicles. Parts reused after scrapping will be labeled with key information such as the used vehicle model and year to ensure safety.
Additionally, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will establish a "Motorcycle Maintenance Qualification Certificate" system. Once introduced, only businesses equipped with certain facilities, equipment, and professional personnel will be allowed to perform maintenance work.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry, while the number of automobile accidents last year decreased from 208,702 cases the previous year to 188,396 cases, motorcycle accidents increased from 20,898 to 21,258 during the same period. The number of deaths per 10,000 motorcycles was also analyzed to be 2.3, more than twice that of automobiles (1.0).
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