Korea publishes its duty-free allowances as plain numbers. The figures below are from Korea Customs’ Korean-language page, read on 11 October 2026. Its English page still shows older ones: US$600, one 1-litre bottle of liquor and 60 ml of perfume. Use the Korean figures.
The form
If you have goods to declare, you submit a traveller’s declaration on arrival, on paper or on mobile. A mobile declaration also lets you receive and pay the duty notice on your phone. If you have nothing to declare, you skip the form and use the “Nothing to Declare” channel, where customs may still inspect your bags. A false declaration can be punished under the Customs Act.
The allowances
| Item | Duty-free allowance |
|---|---|
| Personal effects | US$800 total taxable value |
| Liquor | Up to 2 litres in total and up to US$400 in total value |
| Cigarettes | 200 filter cigarettes |
| E-cigarette liquid | 20 ml, under 1 percent nicotine |
| Perfume | 100 ml |
Liquor, cigarettes, e-cigarette liquid and perfume sit on top of the US$800, not inside it. Liquor has two limits and both apply, so a single bottle worth more than US$400 is over even at well under 2 litres. Travellers under 19, counted by year of birth, get no liquor or tobacco allowance.
Declaring what is over
Declare goods over the allowance yourself and the duty is cut by 30 percent. If customs finds them undeclared, it adds 40 percent of the tax due, or 60 percent for a second offence within two years.
Food and traditional medicine
Farm, fishery and livestock products count toward the US$800 but have their own ceiling: 5 kg of each item, 40 kg in total, and no more than KRW 100,000 paid for them abroad. Traditional medicine materials such as ginseng and deer antlers also have per-item limits, listed in a table on Korea Customs’ English allowance page. That page adds one rule for these goods: if one item goes over its volume or weight limit, “the total price of the products will be dutiable value”, not only the excess.
Two countries, two allowances
On a trip that takes in two countries, each has its own allowance. The same carton is legal in Japan, Thailand and Vietnam and more than ten times over the line in Hong Kong. Korea’s carton set against every other published Asian figure has the comparison.