Update, 29 September 2026. This article has been rewritten below the weight tables. On 17 September 2026 the penalty for flying in a prohibited area without approval stopped being an administrative fine and became a criminal offence. The change is narrow — it applies to prohibited areas only, not to control zones, restricted airspace, altitude or night flying — but prohibited area P-73 is exactly the airspace over central Seoul. Several Korean government pages, including the drone filing portal itself, still display the old figure.
You can carry a sub-250-gram drone into Korea, unregistered and unlicensed, and fly it legally. What you cannot do is take it up over central Seoul — and the weight of the aircraft has nothing to do with why.
Quick answer: Korea’s rules run on two separate tracks. Weight decides whether you must register the aircraft and hold a pilot certificate. Airspace decides whether you need flight approval — and in a control zone, a prohibited area, or above 150 m, every drone needs approval regardless of weight. Most of central Seoul sits inside prohibited area P-73. Since 17 September 2026, flying there without approval is a criminal offence carrying up to one year’s imprisonment or a fine of up to ₩10 million — not the administrative fine it used to be.
Three weights, three different obligations
Korean law splits small drones at 250 grams, 2 kilograms and 25 kilograms. Each line switches on a different requirement, and none of them is about where you fly.
Airspace decides whether you fly at all.
250 g. A pilot certificate is required for unmanned powered aircraft, except those with a maximum take-off weight of 250 grams or less including fuel (Enforcement Rule of the Aviation Safety Act, Article 306(1)4(a)). This is why so many travel drones are built to 249 g.
2 kg. Aircraft registration is required, except for unmanned powered aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 2 kilograms or less (Enforcement Decree of the Aviation Safety Act, Article 24, subparagraph 5). Under 2 kg, there is nothing to register.
25 kg. Flight approval for restricted airspace is waived for unmanned powered aircraft at or below 25 kilograms maximum take-off weight (Enforcement Rule, Article 308(1)4(a)). Almost every consumer drone sits inside this exemption — which is exactly what misleads people.
The exemption that does not apply where you want to fly
Article 127(3) of the Aviation Safety Act sits above the weight table. Even when a drone is not otherwise subject to the approval requirement, approval is still required to fly:
- above the altitude prescribed by ministerial rule, and
- in the airspace prescribed by ministerial rule among controlled, restricted and alert areas.
The Enforcement Rule fills in both. The altitude is 150 metres — measured from the top of the tallest obstacle within a 150 m horizontal radius in areas where people or buildings are dense, and from the ground, water or object below elsewhere (Article 308(5)). The airspace is control zones and prohibited areas (Article 308(6)). Neither clause mentions weight.
So the 25 kg exemption buys you nothing over a control zone or a prohibited area. A 249-gram drone and a 24-kilogram drone need the same piece of paper there.
Seoul is a prohibited area
Central Seoul lies inside P-73, a prohibited airspace. The Seoul Metropolitan Government published a notice on 12 March 2026 warning that, since the most recent change to P-73, cases of unauthorised ultralight flight inside the prohibited zone have risen sharply, and directing pilots to the operator obligations published on the national drone information portal.
P-73’s boundary is not a neat circle and it has been redrawn before, so the only reliable check is the official airspace map. Do that before you pack, not from the riverbank.
What you may not do anywhere in Korea
Article 310(1) of the Enforcement Rule lists the operator obligations. For unmanned aircraft, the ones that catch visitors are:
- dropping objects that may endanger people or property;
- flying over residential or commercial areas, or other places where people are gathered, in a manner that may endanger people or property;
- flying close to buildings in a built-up area in a manner that risks collision;
- flying in controlled, restricted or alert airspace without approval under Article 127 — with a carve-out for drones of 25 kg or less flying below 150 m outside control zones and prohibited areas;
- flying at night, between sunset and sunrise.
The night rule is the one people trip over. Seoul photographs best after dark, and that is precisely the window the rule closes.
What it costs to be wrong
This is the part that changed, and the change is easy to overstate. Act No. 21822, promulgated 16 June 2026 and effective 17 September 2026, did exactly two things: it inserted a new subparagraph 1-2 into Article 161(2), and it removed the corresponding conduct from the administrative-fine provision in Article 166(3)5. The new subparagraph covers a single act — flying an ultralight aircraft in a prohibited area without the approval required by Article 127(3)2.
Everything else is where it was.
| What you did | Consequence | Changed 17 Sep 2026? |
|---|---|---|
| Flew in a prohibited area (P-73 over central Seoul) without approval | Up to 1 year’s imprisonment or a fine up to ₩10 million — Art. 161(2)1-2 | Yes — now criminal |
| Flew in a control zone (within 9.3 km of an airfield) without approval | Administrative fine up to ₩3 million — Art. 166(3)5 | No |
| Flew above 150 m without approval | Administrative fine up to ₩3 million — Art. 166(3)5 | No |
| Flew in a control zone and delayed or diverted an aircraft | Fine up to ₩5 million — Art. 161(4)2 | No |
| Flew in restricted airspace without approval | Fine up to ₩5 million — Art. 161(4)1 | No |
| Flew at night, or breached another operator obligation | Administrative fine up to ₩3 million — Art. 166(3)6 | No |
| Flew an unregistered aircraft that required registration | Up to 6 months’ imprisonment or a fine up to ₩5 million — Art. 161(3) | No |
| Flew without a pilot certificate where one is required | Administrative fine up to ₩4 million — Art. 166(2) | No |
The distinction between an administrative fine and a criminal fine is not cosmetic. An administrative fine is imposed by an agency and settled by payment. A criminal fine follows a prosecution, and the same provision allows imprisonment as an alternative. On 16 September 2026 — one day before this change took effect — the Seoul Central District Court handed suspended prison sentences to people who had flown unmanned aircraft across the military demarcation line, under separate provisions.
Two Korean-language sources describe the change in one line each: a Seoul city notice dated 2 September 2026 and a Korea Transportation Safety Authority release dated 1 September 2026, both giving the same before-and-after figures. The change itself is visible in the amendment text on the national legal database.
Note what the transitional provision says: conduct before 17 September 2026 is still handled under the old rules. This is forward-looking only.
Government pages that still show the old number
If you check this yourself, you will find contradictory figures on official sites. As of 29 September 2026:
- The Drone One-Stop portal — the government’s own filing system — still displays a banner reading “an administrative fine of ₩1.5 million applies for a first offence.” Its notice board carries no announcement of the change.
- The Ministry of Government Legislation’s plain-language legal service states on its own page that its content is current to 15 August 2026 and that the 17 September amendment is pending review.
- A Seoul city page from April 2026 still cites “a fine of up to ₩5 million under Article 161” — the restricted-airspace figure, not the prohibited-area one.
- The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport policy Q&A, written in July 2022, gives the operator-obligation ceiling as ₩2 million; the current figure is ₩3 million.
Read that as a warning about method rather than about drones. Checking a Korean rule against one government page is not verification, and the page that looks most authoritative is not always the one that was updated.
How often is this actually enforced?
More than most visitors assume, and the figures were published by the government to a member of the National Assembly rather than in a press release.
- Seoul, 2021–2026: 485 unauthorised drone flights detected or reported. Administrative fines were imposed in 362 cases, totalling about ₩518 million. The station-level breakdown tracks the tourist map — Yongsan 106, Jongno 58, Mapo 42, Gangnam 26, Seocho 21.
- Nationally, 2021–June 2026: 950 illegal flights near security-sensitive sites, and 1,667 administrative penalties under the Act, of which 935 were prohibited-area incursions.
- In July 2026 a Chinese tourist flying a drone at Bukchon Hanok Village in Jongno was reported by a security officer and stopped by police on the spot.
And one number explains why the law was changed. Of administrative fines imposed on Koreans, 76.3% were paid — 225 of 295. Of those imposed on foreign nationals, 27.3% were paid — 18 of 66. A regional aviation official quoted in the reporting put it plainly: once a foreign visitor has left, there is usually no asset in Korea to collect against. An administrative fine that the person can simply fly home from is not much of a deterrent. A criminal provision is a different instrument.
A front-line officer quoted in the same reporting added the part that matters most here: most foreign visitors do not know the rule exists at all.
How approval is requested — and why a visitor probably cannot get it
Applications go to the regional aviation administration, the Ministry of National Defense, or the air traffic service provider, depending on the airspace (Enforcement Rule, Article 308(2)). For P-73 and the other prohibited areas around the capital, the approving authority is the Ministry of National Defense, not the aviation administration. Where two airspaces overlap, both approvals are needed.
The government’s single window is the Drone One-Stop portal at drone.onestop.go.kr, which handles registration, flight approval and aerial photography filings. Its published turnaround is three working days for a flight approval, four for aerial photography, and thirty for a special approval covering night or beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight. Seoul’s own guidance says to file three to five days ahead.
Here is the practical problem. Registration on that portal offers exactly two identity-verification methods: Korean mobile phone verification or i-PIN. Both are built on Korean identity-verification services and in practice require a Korean-registered mobile line or a Korean identity number. A short-term visitor has neither, and we found no language toggle on the pages we checked.
There is a legal route around the portal. Enforcement Rule Article 308(2) says a flight approval application may be submitted in writing, by fax, or through an information network — the portal is one channel, not the only lawful one. Whether the regional aviation administrations or the Ministry of National Defense actually operate an English-language intake for visitors, we could not confirm; that would need a direct enquiry.
The certificate requirement compounds this. Above 250 g you need at least a Class 4 pilot certificate, which runs through a Korean online course and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. The statute contains no nationality exception, and we are not aware of a route by which a tourist obtains one during a short visit. Read together with the weight tables above, the honest summary is that a sub-250 g drone flown outside prohibited areas and control zones, below 150 m, in daylight, is the only configuration a visitor can realistically fly lawfully without paperwork.
Getting the drone into the country
Two rules catch people before they ever take off.
- Batteries must travel in the cabin. Under rules effective 1 March 2025, lithium batteries may not go in checked baggage. Up to 100 Wh is permitted; 100–160 Wh requires airline approval and is capped at two; above 160 Wh is refused. Spares must be individually protected against short circuit, and batteries may not be stowed in the overhead bin — they stay on your person or in the seat pocket. Watt-hours are milliamp-hours times volts, divided by 1,000; most consumer drone packs sit comfortably under 100 Wh.
- Declare it at customs. Under the Korea Customs Service notice on traveller baggage clearance, personal effects and professional equipment brought in by a short-term visitor for use and re-export are declarable, and may be admitted duty-free on a re-export condition. Drones are not in the list of items that are exempt by name for non-residents, so the declaration channel is the safe assumption. The penalty for non-declaration is a surcharge on the assessed duty.
One rule that is not a problem: radio-equipment certification. A single unit brought in for personal use is exempt, and the exemption applies without an application. Two or more falls outside it.
Common questions
Is a 249-gram drone exempt from the Seoul rules?
No. Weight exempts you from registering the aircraft and from holding a pilot certificate. It exempts you from nothing in a prohibited area, a control zone, or above 150 metres. A 249-gram drone and a 24-kilogram drone need the same approval over central Seoul.
What changed on 17 September 2026?
Flying in a prohibited area without approval moved from being an administrative fine of up to ₩3 million to a criminal offence carrying up to one year’s imprisonment or a fine of up to ₩10 million. Nothing else in the penalty structure changed.
Does the change cover night flying or flying near an airport?
No. Night flying and control-zone flights remain administrative fines of up to ₩3 million. Some coverage has blurred these together; the amendment text covers prohibited areas only.
Can I apply for approval as a tourist?
Registration on the government filing portal requires Korean mobile verification or i-PIN, which a short-term visitor generally cannot obtain. The Enforcement Rule allows written or fax submission as an alternative, but we could not confirm that an English-language intake exists.
Can I put the drone battery in my checked bag?
No. Lithium batteries must travel in the cabin, with limits by watt-hour rating and a prohibition on overhead-bin storage.
Where can I fly without approval?
Outside prohibited areas and control zones, below 150 metres, in daylight, with a drone at or below the relevant weight thresholds. Korea also designates ultralight flight areas where approval is not required. The official airspace map is the only reliable check.
What this guide does not claim
We read the amending statute, the current text of Articles 127, 161 and 166 of the Aviation Safety Act, Article 24 of the Enforcement Decree, and Articles 305, 306, 308 and 310 of the Enforcement Rule in the original on the national legal database. The amendment is Act No. 21822, promulgated 16 June 2026, effective three months after promulgation.
We did not verify the exact boundary of P-73. Its coordinates are published in the aeronautical information publication, which we could not access; one Korean newspaper describes it as a radius of about 3.7 km, but P-73 is a polygon that has been redrawn before, so a single radius figure should not be relied on. We could not open the schedule of standard administrative fine amounts in the Enforcement Decree, so the per-offence figures actually levied are not stated here — only the statutory ceilings.
Whether a foreign visitor can obtain a Korean pilot certificate, and whether the regional aviation administrations operate an English-language flight-approval intake, are both unconfirmed. The enforcement statistics come from government data submitted to members of the National Assembly and reported in the Korean press; we did not see the underlying submissions. We found no reported case of the new criminal provision being applied since it took effect twelve days ago, which at this point means only that we did not find one.
Sources
Statutory provisions read in the original on the National Law Information Center, 29 September 2026.
- Act No. 21822 amending the Aviation Safety Act, promulgated 16 June 2026, effective 17 September 2026 — law.go.kr
- Aviation Safety Act, Articles 127, 161 and 166 — law.go.kr
- Enforcement Decree of the Aviation Safety Act, Article 24 — law.go.kr
- Enforcement Rule of the Aviation Safety Act, Articles 305, 306, 308 and 310 — law.go.kr
- Seoul Metropolitan Government notice on the penalty change, 2 September 2026 — news.seoul.go.kr/gov/archives/580601 — accessed 29 September 2026
- Korea Transportation Safety Authority release, 1 September 2026 — kotsa.or.kr — accessed 29 September 2026
- Seoul Metropolitan Government notice on P-73 prohibited airspace, 12 March 2026 — news.seoul.go.kr/gov/archives/544982
- Drone One-Stop civil service portal, registration and processing-time pages — drone.onestop.go.kr — accessed 29 September 2026
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport policy Q&A on drone operation — molit.go.kr
- Korea Customs Service notice on clearance of traveller and crew baggage, effective 1 April 2026 — law.go.kr
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, lithium battery carriage rules effective 1 March 2025 — korea.kr
- National Radio Research Agency, conformity-assessment exemptions — rra.go.kr
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