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drinking age-gender ministry

Legal age for buying liquor, tobacco to stay the same despite new age-counting system

SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) -- The legal age for buying liquor or cigarettes will remain the same as before, even after the country's official age counting system switches this week to the international standard based on birth dates, the family ministry said Tuesday.

Under a law revision set to go into effect Wednesday, South Korea will no longer use the unique "Korean age" and instead will adopt the internationally recognized counting system in all judicial and administrative areas.

That would make the official ages of people one or two years lower than those counted according to the Korean age system because the traditional way of age counting has been to count newborns as 1 year old and to add a year on the first day of the new year regardless of birth dates.

Despite the upcoming change, however, the definition of minors not allowed to purchase liquor and tobacco will remain the same at below 19 under the Youth Protection Act, with the exception of those turning 19 in the same calendar year, according to the ministry.

That means that those who were born in 2004 or earlier can buy liquor or cigarettes.

The criteria that define the age of adolescents have been in force since 2001 to guarantee free social activities for those over 19 years old in international age, who are generally accepted as grown-ups under social norms.

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