juso.go.kr API Guide: Look Up Korean Addresses in English (Official)

If you’ve ever tried to fill out an international shipping form, submit a visa application, or register at a Korean institution as a foreigner, you know the pain: you need your Korean address in English, and getting it right is not as simple as typing it into Google Translate.

The good news is that South Korea’s government runs a free, official API that returns verified English-language road name addresses for any location in the country. It’s called the juso.go.kr Address Search API, operated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (행정안전부). This guide walks you through exactly how it works, how to get an API key, and how to start pulling accurate English addresses in minutes.

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Key Takeaways

• juso.go.kr is the official government address API run by Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety — no third-party required.
• A dedicated English address endpoint (addrEngApi.do) returns the engAddr field with the romanised road name address.
• Getting an API key is free — register at business.juso.go.kr.
• The API supports JSON and XML responses and handles both road name addresses (도로명) and legacy lot-based addresses (지번).
• A 5-digit postal code (zipNo) is included in every response — essential for courier labels and official forms.

What Is the juso.go.kr Address API?

The juso.go.kr Address Search API is a free, open API published by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (행정안전부) of South Korea. It is the same database that powers the official address lookup widget used on countless Korean government websites and e-commerce platforms.

Korea introduced road name addresses (도로명주소) as a nationwide standard in 2014, replacing the older lot-based (지번) system for most official purposes. Every building in the country has an official road name address, and those addresses have corresponding English romanisations maintained by the government.

The API is hosted at business.juso.go.kr, which is the Address-Based Industry Support Service portal. It offers three main integration modes:

• Search API — server-to-server REST calls, ideal for applications and scripts.
• Popup API — a ready-made JavaScript widget you can embed in any web form.
• English Address API — a dedicated endpoint that always returns the romanised English field prominently.

The Two Key API Endpoints

Two endpoints matter most for English address retrieval:

Endpoint	URL	Best for
Korean Search API	https://www.juso.go.kr/addrlink/addrLinkApi.do	Full address data including engAddr alongside Korean fields
English Address API	https://www.juso.go.kr/addrlink/addrEngApi.do	Dedicated endpoint — prioritises English output; useful when you only need the romanised form
Popup / Widget API	https://www.juso.go.kr/addrlink/addrLinkUrl.do	Drop-in address picker for web forms; no server-side code needed

For most developer use cases — shipping integrations, user registration forms, visa document generators — the Korean Search API is the best choice because it returns both the English address (engAddr) and the postal code (zipNo) in a single response.

How to Get an API Key (Step by Step)

The API key (called a confmKey — confirmation key) is issued free of charge by the government. Here is the registration process:

1. Go to https://business.juso.go.kr/addrlink/openApi/apiReqst.do
2. Fill in the application form with your name, organisation (if applicable), intended use, and the server IP address from which you’ll make API calls. The key is IP-specific — if you plan to call from multiple servers, you need to register each IP or use the development key first.
3. Submit the form. Approval is generally fast — in many cases the key is issued the same day.
4. Once approved, you receive your confmKey string. Keep it private; treat it like a password.

Development / Test Key
Before your production key is approved, the portal provides a temporary development key that works with limited query volume. Use it to build and test your integration without waiting.

Request Parameters Explained

Both the Korean Search API and the English Address API share the same request parameter set:

Parameter	Required	Type	Description
confmKey	Yes	String	Your API approval key from business.juso.go.kr
keyword	Yes	String (UTF-8)	The address search term — can be Korean or partial road name
currentPage	Yes	Integer	Page number for paginated results (start at 1)
countPerPage	Yes	Integer	Number of results per page (max 100)
resultType	No	String	json or xml — defaults to XML if omitted

A minimal JSON request looks like this:

GET https://www.juso.go.kr/addrlink/addrLinkApi.do
  ?confmKey=YOUR_CONFM_KEY
  &keyword=세종대로+209
  &currentPage=1
  &countPerPage=10
  &resultType=json

Response Fields: Where to Find the English Address

The API response wraps results inside a results object. Each matching address record contains the following fields:

Field	Description	Example value
engAddr	English road name address — the romanised official address	209 Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul
roadFullAddr	Full Korean road name address	서울특별시 종로구 세종대로 209
roadAddrPart1	Main road address portion (without building detail)	서울특별시 종로구 세종대로 209
roadAddrPart2	Additional reference address (e.g. neighbourhood)	(세종로)
jibunAddr	Legacy lot-based address	서울특별시 종로구 세종로 1
zipNo	5-digit postal code	03172
bdNm	Building name	정부서울청사
siNm	City / province name	서울특별시
sggNm	County / district (구/군)	종로구
emdNm	Township (읍/면/동)	세종로
admCd	Administrative division code	1111010100
rnMgtSn	Road name management serial number	111103135009
bdMgtSn	Building management serial number	1111010100100010000000001

The engAddr field is the one you need for international forms, shipping labels, and English-language documents. It is generated and maintained by the government — not translated on the fly — so the spelling of street names, district names, and city names follows the Revised Romanisation of Korean standard.

Code Example: Fetch an English Address in Python

The following example demonstrates a basic English address lookup using Python’s requests library. Replace YOUR_CONFM_KEY with your actual API key.

import requests

API_URL = "https://www.juso.go.kr/addrlink/addrLinkApi.do"

params = {
    "confmKey":    "YOUR_CONFM_KEY",
    "keyword":     "세종대로 209",
    "currentPage": 1,
    "countPerPage": 10,
    "resultType":  "json"
}

response = requests.get(API_URL, params=params)
data = response.json()

for item in data["results"]["juso"]:
    print("English Address:", item["engAddr"])
    print("Postal Code:    ", item["zipNo"])
    print("Full Korean:    ", item["roadFullAddr"])
    print("---")

Sample output:

English Address: 209, Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Postal Code:     03172
Full Korean:     서울특별시 종로구 세종대로 209

Who Needs This API and Why

The juso.go.kr English address API is useful in several practical contexts:

• International e-commerce — Amazon Global, eBay, AliExpress, and other platforms require shipping addresses in Latin script. Auto-filling the engAddr field removes the manual romanisation step for Korean sellers.
• Visa applications — The D-2 (student), D-10 (job seeker), and F-visa applications at the Korea Immigration Service require a Korean residential address in English on some form sections. The engAddr output matches the government’s own romanisation standard, so it is accepted without question.
• University registration — Foreign students enrolling at Korean universities often need their dormitory or off-campus address in English for the student ID card issuance form.
• Health insurance registration — NHIS (National Health Insurance Service) foreigner registration sometimes requests the English address for documentation.
• Property management platforms — Proptech apps serving the expat market can use the API to auto-generate bilingual address labels.

Understanding the engAddr Format

The English address returned by the API follows a consistent structure:

[Building number], [Road name], [District (-gu/-dong)], [City]

Example:
209, Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul

Key points about the format:

• The building number comes first, then the road name — this differs from typical Korean address order (largest to smallest unit) and matches international address conventions.
• Road names use the Revised Romanisation of Korean (국어의 로마자 표기법) — the official standard since 2000. Hyphens separate syllable boundaries within compound names (e.g., Sejong-daero not Sejongdaero).
• District suffixes — -gu (구), -si (시), -do (도) — are retained in the English string, which is the format recognised by Korean government agencies.
• The city or province name (Seoul, Busan, Gyeonggi-do) appears at the end without a country suffix — add “South Korea” manually if submitting to foreign postal systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the juso.go.kr API free to use?

Yes. The API is provided free of charge by the Korean government. There is no cost to register or to make queries. The key is issued per server IP, and a development key is available for testing before production approval.

How long does API key approval take?

Based on community reports on the official Q&A board at business.juso.go.kr, approval for a production key typically happens within one business day. Development keys are available immediately after registration for testing purposes.

Can I use the API from outside Korea?

The confmKey is tied to the server IP address you registered. As long as your server’s IP matches the registered IP, you can call the API from anywhere in the world. If you are building a purely client-side app, consider using the Popup API (addrLinkUrl.do), which does not require a server-side key.

What is the difference between addrLinkApi.do and addrEngApi.do?

addrLinkApi.do is the general-purpose search API. It returns the full set of address fields including engAddr. addrEngApi.do is a dedicated English address search endpoint that prioritises English output. For most use cases, addrLinkApi.do with resultType=json is the recommended choice because it provides both English and Korean fields in one call.

Does the API return the full English address including city and country?

The engAddr field includes the street address, district, and city — for example, 209, Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul. The country name (South Korea / Republic of Korea) is not included; you should append it manually when filling out international shipping forms.

Is there a usage limit on the API?

The official documentation does not publish a hard per-minute rate limit for production keys. The development key has restricted query volume. For high-traffic production use, contact the business.juso.go.kr support team via the official Q&A board to confirm your usage requirements.

Conclusion

The juso.go.kr API is one of the most underrated tools for anyone dealing with Korean addresses in an international context. It is government-operated, free, accurate, and returns a clean English address string that follows the official romanisation standard — exactly what overseas shipping platforms, visa forms, and foreign-language documents require.

If you need to look up a Korean address in English right now without writing any code, use Jusome’s free address search tool — it queries the same official database and shows you the English address instantly.

For developers building shipping integrations, address validators, or multilingual registration forms, the steps are straightforward: register at business.juso.go.kr, receive your confmKey, and start querying. The engAddr field will be in every response.

Sources / 참고 자료

• business.juso.go.kr — Open API Registration (행정안전부 도로명주소 OpenAPI 신청) — Official API key registration portal
• eGovFrame Wiki — 도로명주소 연계 API — eGovernment framework documentation listing API endpoints and response fields
• PyPI — addresskr library — Python library using the juso.go.kr API; confirms field names and key registration URL
• GitHub — jinahya/juso-go-kr-api-proxy — Open-source proxy confirming three API types: addr-link-api, addr-eng-api, addr-detail-api
• GitHub — devikkim/KoreaJusoAPIDemo — Demo app confirming endpoint URL (addrEngApi.do) and JSON parameter structure
• 공공데이터포털 — 행정안전부 실시간 주소정보 조회(검색API) — Public Data Portal entry for the address search API

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