Most South Korean police officers do not carry a gun on routine patrol. As of late 2023, only about 44 percent of the country’s roughly 50,000 local patrol officers had been issued a .38-caliber revolver, and a government plan to arm every officer with some type of handgun is still being phased in through 2026.1Korea JoongAng Daily. Korea to Provide Less-Lethal Guns to Police Officers So the short answer to whether Korean police carry guns is: some do, most don’t yet, and even the ones who do rarely fire them.
What Patrol Officers Actually Carry
The standard kit for a Korean patrol officer is built around non-lethal tools: a baton, a taser, and pepper spray. These handle most street-level encounters, and the gear reflects a de-escalation-first philosophy.2The Hankyoreh. 1 Officer, 1 Gun: Korea to Arm Patrolling Police With Less-Lethal Firearms in Coming Years
After a wave of random stabbing attacks in 2023, the National Police Agency also fast-tracked protective equipment. Starting in mid-2024, officers began receiving new stab-proof body armor in four styles: a multipurpose vest rated for knife attacks, a lighter concealed vest for patrol and detective work, a thin cut-resistant jacket for everyday wear, and a neck guard. The heaviest option weighs just 2.1 kilograms, down from more than 8 kilograms for the older combined bulletproof-and-stab-proof setup. Each piece is color-coded red, yellow, or green by protection level.3Korea JoongAng Daily. Amid Rising Violence, Korea’s Police Officers Receive Safety Gear Makeover
The Push to Arm Every Officer by 2026
The 22,000 .38 revolvers already in circulation were not meant to be the final answer. In August 2023, President Yoon Suk Yeol announced that every patrol officer would receive a handgun within three years — either the existing .38 revolver or a newly developed less-lethal alternative.4The Straits Times. South Korea to Arm Police Officers With Less Lethal Handguns
The less-lethal handgun, developed by SNT Motiv in 2020, fires a plastic bullet with roughly one-tenth the penetrating power of a .38 Special round. A .38 slug can penetrate up to 48 centimeters when hitting a thigh; the plastic round penetrates only 6 to 7 centimeters. The gun weighs about 515 grams, is 20 percent lighter than the .38 revolver, and has three times the effective range of a taser. It can also load blanks or standard 9-millimeter ammunition when a situation escalates beyond what a plastic round can handle.1Korea JoongAng Daily. Korea to Provide Less-Lethal Guns to Police Officers The primary goal is stopping an attacker without killing them, a direct response to the “mudjima” (random, motiveless) knife attacks of 2023.
An initial 8.6 billion won was allocated to distribute 5,700 of the new handguns in the first year. The remaining roughly 30,000 officers are slated to receive theirs by about late 2026. Once the rollout is complete, a responding officer will choose among three options: a .38 revolver, the less-lethal handgun, or a taser.4The Straits Times. South Korea to Arm Police Officers With Less Lethal Handguns
When the Law Allows an Officer to Fire
Article 10-4 of the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers allows weapon use only in narrow circumstances: legitimate self-defense as defined by the Criminal Act, or situations where no other means exist to stop a serious crime or arrest a dangerous suspect. An officer can fire when a suspect involved in a crime punishable by three or more years of imprisonment resists arrest or tries to flee, when someone carrying a weapon refuses repeated orders to drop it, or when a third party physically intervenes to help a suspect escape.5Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers – Article 10-4 Use of Weapons
Even within those grounds, Article 10 requires that any lethal force be kept to the “necessary minimum.” Legal authorization alone is not enough; the force must match the actual threat. Article 12 provides that an officer who causes harm by abusing this authority faces up to one year of imprisonment. A 2022 amendment was designed to reduce criminal liability for officers who use force in genuine emergencies, so long as they did not act with intentional wrongdoing or gross negligence.6Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers
Beyond routine patrol, officers carry or deploy firearms in specific high-risk scenarios: protecting VIPs, guarding critical government facilities, and responding to active threats involving armed suspects. The 2023 stabbing spree prompted the National Police Agency to declare a “special police operation” that explicitly authorized firearms and stun guns in public spaces when confronting attackers.4The Straits Times. South Korea to Arm Police Officers With Less Lethal Handguns
How Often Korean Police Actually Shoot
The legal limits are strict. The cultural reality is even more striking. According to parliamentary data reviewed in 2024, Korean police discharged live rounds just four times that year, eight times in 2023, and five times each in 2022 and 2021. The total has never exceeded ten incidents in a single year, in a country of 52 million people.
The restraint is not only about the law. Firing a weapon invites intense public scrutiny, potential criminal investigation, and administrative consequences. Even after the government pushed to arm more officers and publicly encouraged decisive responses to knife attacks, fewer rounds were fired in 2024 than in 2023.
Why the Unarmed Norm Works
Korean police can afford to patrol mostly unarmed because the population they police is also overwhelmingly unarmed. South Korea’s firearms laws are among the strictest in the world. Civilians cannot possess guns without a permit, and permits are nearly impossible to obtain outside of narrow exceptions like licensed hunting or sport shooting. Weapons issued under those exceptions are typically stored at police stations between use rather than in private homes. Manufacturing, selling, importing, or possessing firearms without authorization carries lengthy prison sentences. Officers are far less likely to encounter an armed suspect on a routine call, which shapes the entire approach to policing.
Specialized and Border Units Are a Separate Case
The picture above is about regular patrol officers. The Korean National Police Agency’s Special Operations Unit, the country’s designated police counter-terrorism force, is equipped with military-grade weapons including assault rifles, submachine guns, and sniper rifles. It handles hostage rescues, high-risk arrest warrants, explosive ordnance disposal, armed standoffs, and security for major national events, and it trains more like a military special-operations team than a conventional police unit.
The border is also different. Troops on the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area — the narrow strip inside the Demilitarized Zone where North and South Korean forces stand face to face — were authorized to carry guns after North Korean soldiers resumed an armed posture there. The UN Command made the decision to re-arm its guard forces to protect both civilian and military personnel at the JSA.7VOA News. Troops on South Korea Side of Border Security Area to Carry Guns: UN Command