Is it legal to recording phone calls in South Korea?
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Quick answer
Legal position
Current starter summary
Recording phone calls in South Korea is not a flat yes or no answer from the official sources checked here. The Act clearly prohibits recording or listening to non-public conversations between other people without lawful authority, but the checked sources do not fully resolve every participant-call scenario.
Conditions
What would need to be true
Do not record a non-public call between other people unless a specific legal basis applies.
Exceptions
Known carve-outs or edge cases
The sources reviewed here leave some participant-recording scenarios to be verified more specifically.
Penalties
Penalty snapshot
The official court material cites Article 16 as allowing up to ten years imprisonment and up to five years qualification suspension for prohibited recording or listening.
Enforcement
How this may be enforced
Criminal enforcement follows the Communications Privacy Protection Act and related court interpretation.
More rules in South Korea
Use the reset build to keep country pages useful even before every row is fully sourced.
gamble online
Online gambling in South Korea is not a flat yes or no answer from the official sources checked here. The Criminal Act punishes gambling and habitual gambling, but specific state-authorized gambling products are treated separately by statute.
buy a pepper spray
South Korea does not treat gas sprayers and electric shock devices as ordinary unrestricted consumer items. The weapons safety law requires a possession permit for gas sprayers and electric shock machines unless a statutory exception applies.
buy a stun gun
South Korea does not treat gas sprayers and electric shock devices as ordinary unrestricted consumer items. The weapons safety law requires a possession permit for gas sprayers and electric shock machines unless a statutory exception applies.
buy a taser
South Korea does not treat gas sprayers and electric shock devices as ordinary unrestricted consumer items. The weapons safety law requires a possession permit for gas sprayers and electric shock machines unless a statutory exception applies.
Compare this activity in other countries
This makes the rule page useful for comparison without creating a second data source.
Australia
Australia does not have a single clean national yes or no answer for recording phone calls because the OAIC says relevant state and territory laws apply and specifically notes laws covering the monitoring and recording of telephone conversations.
Austria
Austria’s criminal-law rule on recording non-public speech can apply to call recording, so there is no clean national yes or no without checking consent and legal authority.
Belgium
Belgium's data protection authority says it is in principle prohibited to record electronic conversations, including professional phone conversations, unless a recognized exception applies.
Canada
Recording a phone call in Canada is not a flat yes or no because a private communication cannot be knowingly intercepted unless one of the parties consents or another legal exception applies.
About this row
Canonical dataset status
Official sources
Source URLs attached
Reset rule
Why the page is intentionally light
The new site should show a stable layout, a stable route, and clear source slots before the dataset is scaled up again. That keeps management simple and makes later official-source population safer.