Effective on August 1, 2015, South Korea’s existing 6-digit postal codes have been replaced with a new set of 5-digit postal codes. As a result, the new Global Address Verification (GAV) tables have changed to the new format and Trillium will convert the 6-digit postal codes to the 5-digit postal codes in order to facilitate a smooth transition. This topic explains how to process Korean addresses in this new format.
The change to the Korean postal code system is part of the transition from the old postal system based on the administrative units such as Eup and Dong to the new postal system based on geographic features such as streets and rivers. The new postal code will be assigned to each State Basic District. The first 3-digits out of 5 represent city or province and the last 2 digits are composed of serial numbers given to districts inside the corresponding geographical location. The main geographical components (province, city/county/district and sub-city) remain unchanged.
- You must remove the old table (kr_post_glob.tbl) after installing the new table to use the new 5-digit postal codes.
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- New table: kr_kpos_glob.tbl
- Old table: kr_post_glob.tbl
- The Korean Postal Matcher cannot correctly process data if the input data contains a mixture of the old and new formats.
Output Attributes
When you use the new table, you will see the following differences in the output attributes:
- Postal codes will be updated to the new 5-digit format.
- The pr_level3 attribute will be blank for major cities. Provinces and other areas will still receive pr_level3 if applicable.
- Street name will be filled in the pr_level4 attribute.
- All grid type (block/bunji) attributes will be blank. Those attributes are:
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- pr_block_number
- pr_block_number_display_full
- pr_sub_block_number
- The debug file will look similar to the old format except that the ‘k’ tokens (block numbers) are not included and more level4s are displayed.
Apply the new Korean postal codes
To apply the new Korean postal codes:
Directory Browser
The base data fields for Korea displayed in the Directory Browser are determined by the tables installed in the GAV table directory. You will need to remove the old table (kr_post_glob.tbl) to use the new table (kr_kpos_glob.tbl) in the Directory Browser.