Korean Translation

Two things mislead people about Korean documents: Hangul is an alphabet that looks like characters, and Korea rebuilt its civil registration system in 2008, so older and newer documents do not share a structure.

5 min readLast updated 1 September 2026

Writing system

공증된 공식 번역본

gongjeungdoen gongsik beonyeokbon

A notarised official translation

Hangul is an alphabet of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Its letters are arranged not in a line but in syllable blocks, which is why it resembles Chinese characters. Each part of a block is a distinct sound, and the system was deliberately designed in the fifteenth century.

The registration system changed in 2008

For many years Korean civil registration was organised around a male head of household (hoju): the register belonged to him and everyone appeared within it. That system was abolished in 2008 and replaced by an individual-based family relations register.

For translation this means documents from before and after 2008 differ in structure. The old hoju register (호적등본) showed a whole family on one document; in the new system the information is spread across several. If a Turkish institution is looking for particular information, it is worth asking which document is needed before ordering translations.

Documents in the new system and what each contains
Document	What it shows	When it is requested
기본증명서 (basic certificate)	Birth, death, changes of name	Where identity and birth details are needed
가족관계증명서 (family relations)	Parents, spouse, children	Where family ties must be shown
혼인관계증명서 (marriage)	Marriage and divorce records	In marital status procedures
입양관계증명서 (adoption)	Adoption records	In the relevant procedures
주민등록등본 (residence)	Address and household details	Where proof of residence is needed

Documents in the new system and what each contains

Romanisation: the rule and the practice differ

Korea adopted an official romanisation system in 2000. Personal names, however, do not follow it: passports continue to use traditional forms. As a result, the spelling the rule would produce and the spelling in the passport can differ.

Official system against common passport spellings
Hangul	Official romanisation	Common in passports
이	I	Lee, Yi, Rhee
박	Bak	Park, Pak
김	Gim	Kim
최	Choe	Choi
정	Jeong	Jung, Chung
강	Gang	Kang

Official system against common passport spellings

The spelling we use is the one in the passport, not the official romanisation. Institutions match on the passport, and a translation reading "Gim" may fail to match a passport reading "Kim". The Hangul spelling is shown in the document as well.

Name order is also reversed: the family name comes first and is usually one syllable, the given name two. In 김민준, 김 (Kim) is the family name and 민준 (Minjun) the given name. Passports preserve that order, and because Turkish institutions can fill the fields the wrong way round, the translation marks which element is the family name.

Age reckoning changed in 2023

Traditionally a person in Korea was one year old at birth and gained a year at each new year, producing a difference of one or two years against international reckoning. Legislation in June 2023 made the international method the basis for official procedures.

basic letters in Hangul: 24basic letters in Hangul
the year the head-of-household register was abolished: 2008the year the head-of-household register was abolished
the year age reckoning moved to the international method: 2023the year age reckoning moved to the international method

The change does not retrospectively correct ages on older documents. An age stated on a document issued before 2023 may follow the traditional reckoning. Translations work from the date of birth rather than the stated age; where a document gives only an age, we flag it in a translator's note.

Chinese characters in older documents

Korean historically made heavy use of characters of Chinese origin (hanja). They are almost absent from everyday writing today, but they appear in older official documents, particularly in names and legal texts. A person's name may be written in both Hangul and hanja, and the two denote the same person.

Documents containing hanja cannot be read by everyone who reads modern Korean; they require separate knowledge. If your document contains Chinese characters, tell us at the outset.

Frequently asked questions

Which Korean document corresponds to a Turkish civil registry extract?

There is no single counterpart. What a Turkish extract contains is spread across at least two Korean documents: the basic certificate (기본증명서) and the family relations certificate (가족관계증명서). Establishing exactly what the Turkish institution needs means translating only what is required.

My passport says Kim but the official romanisation is Gim. Which applies?

The spelling in your passport. Institutions match on what is written there, and using the officially correct romanisation can leave the document unmatched. The translation also shows the Hangul spelling so both are visible.

Is an apostille enough for a document going to Korea?

Yes. South Korea is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so sworn translation, notarisation and an apostille are valid. We still suggest asking the receiving institution whether it wants the translation made in Korea.

I have an old hoju register. Is it still usable?

Pre-2008 records are archived and copies can be obtained for retrospective procedures. For current marital status, however, documents from the new system are required. Their scopes differ, so ask the institution which one it wants.

My document contains Chinese characters. Can it be translated?

Yes, but tell us at the outset, since it calls for separate knowledge. Names may appear in both hanja and Hangul; we show both in the translation so the institution can see that the two denote one person.