Ten Thousand Won Separates the Two Prices Korea Puts on One Speeding Violation

The Scene

A camera photographs a hatchback at 78 kilometres per hour where the limit is 50. Nobody is pulled over. Three weeks later an envelope reaches the address on the vehicle register demanding 70,000 won. The driver is sure the figure should be 60,000, which is what an officer writes on a roadside ticket for the same 28 over.

Both figures are correct. Korean law keeps two instruments apart for the same act. One is the notified penalty, the beomchikgeum, a sum the police invite a person to pay in settlement of conduct that is technically a criminal offence. The other is the administrative fine, the gwataeryo, a charge with no criminal character, aimed at whoever answers for the vehicle rather than at whoever held the wheel. The second is 10,000 won higher, in every bracket, on ordinary roads and in protection zones alike.

The gap becomes interesting once the discount is applied. Every district office advertises a 20 percent reduction for paying an administrative fine early, and 20 percent of 70,000 won is 14,000, comfortably more than the gap. Were it general, the camera route would be cheaper almost everywhere and leave a licence record untouched. It is not general. The ordinance setting it reaches exactly two speeding rows, and they fall on opposite sides of a break-even point at 50,000 won.

What the Rule Actually Says

Start with the criminal side, because the notified penalty is parasitic on it. Speeding is an offence under "제156조", Article 156, punishable by a fine of up to 200,000 won, detention, or a minor fine. Subparagraph 1 lists dozens of duties whose breach constitutes the offence, and "제17조제3항", Article 17(3), the speed-limit duty, is one. The listing is not clean: a parenthetical excludes persons falling under Article 151-2 subparagraph 2, Article 153(2) subparagraph 2, and Article 154 subparagraph 9. Hold that carve-out.

Once conduct is an Article 156 offence, "제163조제1항", Article 163(1), lets a police station chief notify the person recognised as an offender to pay a notified penalty, by written notice stating the grounds. A proviso names three people who cannot be notified: someone whose name or address is not certain, someone likely to flee, and someone who refuses the notice. The text is at Korea Law Information Center, Road Traffic Act Article 163.

A camera photographs a plate, not a name or an address, so that route is structurally unavailable, and the unavailability is the trigger for the second instrument. "제160조제3항", Article 160(3), provides that where a violation of a long list of articles, Article 17(3) among them, is proved by a photograph, videotape, other visual recording medium or loading-weight measurement data, and either subparagraph applies, an administrative fine of not more than 200,000 won is imposed on the employer, etc. under Article 56(1). Subparagraph 1 covers an unidentifiable driver, where no notice under Article 143(1) can issue, but its parenthetical limits it to Article 15(3), Article 29(4) and (5), and Articles 32 through 34, the dedicated-lane, emergency-vehicle and parking duties. Speeding is not among them, so a speed camera runs through subparagraph 2: where a notified-penalty disposition under Article 163 cannot be made. See Korea Law Information Center, Road Traffic Act Article 160.

Then the counterweight. "제160조제4항", Article 160(4), bars the fine in four cases: the vehicle was stolen or another unavoidable reason exists; the driver has been punished under Article 156 for that violation, including by a notified penalty under Article 163; the driver has been identified through submitted opinions under Article 16(2) of the Act on the Regulation of Violations of Public Order or an objection under Article 20(1) of that Act; or the car was rented out by a rental or leasing business and only the car was leased. Subparagraph 3 makes the two prices a live choice: name the driver during the opinion period and the fine dies. "제88조제3항", Article 88(3), of the decree then requires the city to notify the police station, attaching material proving who drove.

Amounts come from schedules. "제88조제4항", Article 88(4), sets Table 6 as the standard for administrative fines, with a proviso: a breach of Article 5, Article 17(3) or Articles 32 through 34 in a child protection zone or a senior-citizen or disabled-person protection zone between 08:00 and 20:00 goes to Table 7 instead. The discount comes from "제18조제1항", Article 18(1), of the Act on the Regulation of Violations of Public Order, which lets an agency reduce a fine paid voluntarily within the period for submitting opinions; the Ministry of Government Legislation, Easy Law guide on reducing administrative fines puts the ceiling at 20 percent and the opinion period at ten days or more. But "제88조제5항", Article 88(5), does not fix the rate itself. It adopts that range and leaves the rate to Ordinance of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, on three criteria: the delinquency rate of administrative fines; the type, content and degree of the violation; and equity with the notified penalty. The third is the one to remember: the ordinance must keep the discount fair against the very number this article is comparing it to. See Korea Law Information Center, Road Traffic Act Enforcement Decree Article 88.

The Numbers

Table 6 sets the fine on the employer, etc. for failing to observe the speed limit in four brackets. For passenger cars etc., which its remarks define as passenger cars and cargo vehicles of four tonnes or less: 130,000 won for more than 60 kilometres per hour over, 100,000 for more than 40 and up to 60, 70,000 for more than 20 and up to 40, 40,000 for 20 or less. Table 8 gives the notified penalty for the same brackets at 120,000, 90,000, 60,000 and 30,000. See Korea Law Information Center, Enforcement Decree Table 6 on administrative fine standards and Korea Law Information Center, Enforcement Decree Table 8 on notified penalty amounts.

Subtract along the rows and the answer is monotonous: 10,000 won, four times. The same step appears in the bus and two-wheeler columns of both tables. Cross into a protection zone in daytime hours and the schedules change but the step does not: Table 7 and Table 10 give a passenger car 70,000 against 60,000 at the bottom, 160,000 against 150,000 at the top. One constant, in every pair.

Now the reduction. The ordinance the decree pointed to is Table 39 of the Enforcement Rule, headed standards for the reduction of administrative fines, and only two of its rows concern speed. Row 9 covers the employer, etc. of a vehicle that exceeded the limit by 20 kilometres per hour or less in a protection zone between 08:00 and 20:00: pre-reduction 70,000 won for a passenger car, rate 20, post-reduction 56,000. Row 10 covers the same excess outside those zones: 40,000, rate 20, post-reduction 32,000. Then remark 1 does the real work. It reads that among the violations under Article 160 of the Act, no administrative fine shall be reduced for violations other than those in the table above. That is why a 70,000 won notice for 18 over in a protection zone gets 20 percent off while the identical 70,000 won for 28 over on an ordinary road gets nothing. See Korea Law Information Center, Enforcement Rule Table 39 on reducing administrative fines.

Run the arithmetic the third criterion invites. On an ordinary road the fine for 20 or less over is 40,000 won; 20 percent of it is 8,000, less than the gap, so the reduced fine is 32,000 and still sits 2,000 above the 30,000 notified penalty. In a protection zone the same excess carries 70,000; 20 percent is 14,000, more than the gap, so the reduced fine is 56,000, which is 4,000 below the 60,000 notified penalty. The discount reverses the ranking because of the size of the base, not because of anything about the driving. Twenty percent equals 10,000 won when the fine is 50,000, and one row sits on that line: two-wheelers in a protection zone face 50,000 under Table 7, reduced to 40,000 by Table 39 row 9, exactly their 40,000 notified penalty in Table 10.

What the extra money buys, in the brackets with no discount, is a clean licence record. Korea Law Information Center, Enforcement Rule Table 28 on licence revocation and suspension standards defines demerit points as points allocated, for use as the basic material for an administrative disposition, according to the gravity of the violation and the degree of damage. Its speeding rows start at 15 points for more than 20 and up to 40 over and climb through four heavier bands. Those points are allocated for a driver's violation, while Article 160(3) names the employer, etc. as the person fined, and the camera case reaching it names no driver. The premium is the price of a file closing without a name in it, much as the fifteen-day residence report sits under a criminal fine article: two sanctions of different character over one act, and a procedural fact decides which lands.

Where This Doesn't Apply

Rented cars are the biggest exclusion and the likeliest to catch a visitor. Article 160(4) subparagraph 4 blocks the administrative fine where the car was rented out by a car rental business operator under the Passenger Transport Service Act or a facility leasing business operator under the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act, and only the car was leased. The company cannot be made the payer, so the case returns to the notified-penalty track and the renter is notified. In a hire car the choice above does not exist: you get the lower number, the points, and no reduction, because Table 39 reduces fines you are not receiving.

The top of the range leaves the system altogether, which is where the carve-out held back earlier matters. Article 156 subparagraph 1 lists Article 17(3) but excludes persons falling under Article 151-2 subparagraph 2, Article 153(2) subparagraph 2 and Article 154 subparagraph 9. "제154조제9호", Article 154 subparagraph 9, covers driving at more than 80 kilometres per hour over the maximum, and Article 154 punishes by a fine of up to 300,000 won or detention, with its own exclusion for the two heavier provisions above it. A person in that band is outside Article 156, so the conduct is not the offence the Article 163 notified penalty depends on, and neither Table 8 nor Table 39 offers anything for it. See Korea Law Information Center, Road Traffic Act Article 154.

The 20 percent does not travel to other violations by itself. Table 39 also lists parking and stopping rows and the driver-facing fines under Article 160(2), such as seat belts, window tint and licence renewal, all at a rate of 20. What it omits, remark 1 excludes. The comparison here works only because the two speed schedules are built in matched brackets.

The reduction also runs on a different clock from the payment. Article 18(1) ties it to voluntary payment within the opinion period, whereas Article 88(6) of the decree gives 60 days from receipt of the payment notice. Paying on day 45 is timely and earns nothing. The notified penalty has no reduction to miss: the Ministry of Government Legislation, Easy Law guide on notified penalties records it as due in ten days, rising to 1.2 times in the following twenty-day window, and "제165조제1항", Article 165(1), then requires a summary trial of the non-payer unless the notified amount plus 50 percent is paid before that request. Every figure in that chain moves upward. The zone rules are narrow too: the same camera at 21:00 produces the ordinary-road pair, where the reduction loses. Incheon Metropolitan City reproduces the Article 160 text and the three Article 88(5) criteria on its Incheon Metropolitan City, traffic regulations page on administrative fine legislation.

If You Are Actually in This Situation

Read which instrument the envelope holds first. A notice naming a person and giving ten days is a notified penalty. A notice addressed to the registered keeper, mentioning submission of opinions and a 60-day window, is an administrative fine under Article 160(3). Only the second carries a reduction, and only inside the opinion period printed on the form.

If it is an administrative fine on a car you own, the decision is arithmetic. A 40,000 won fine reduces to 32,000 against a 30,000 won notified penalty, so paying costs 2,000 more and leaves no points. A 70,000 won fine in a daytime protection zone reduces to 56,000 against 60,000, so paying costs less and leaves no points. Any other figure on the speed schedule has no reduction under remark 1 and stands 10,000 won above the roadside number. To take the lower figure and accept the points, use Article 160(4) subparagraph 3: submit opinions identifying the driver, after which Article 88(3) sends the file to the police station. Above 20 kilometres per hour over that means 15 points or more, and points compound in the way that a single threshold number decides which parts of a statute a business keeps.

If the car is a hire car, expect the company to name you, and budget for the notified penalty, the points, and whatever handling fee the contract adds. On a car you still own in Korea, do not let an administrative fine sit: Article 88(7) of the decree lets the unpaid amount, with additional charges, be billed alongside the automobile tax notice.