Can a Korean Ride a Motorbike in Vietnam? The 2023 Agreement Almost Nobody Mentions

The short answer

Yes, if you are a Korean national and your Korean international driving permit carries the category A motorcycle stamp. Without that stamp the agreement covers cars only.

A Korean national holding a Korea-issued international driving permit stamped category A may legally ride a motorbike in Vietnam. The permit must be carried together with the Korean domestic licence, the riding must be non-commercial, and it holds for up to one year from the day you entered Vietnam.

If the permit carries any other category, the agreement allows you category B vehicles, which means cars. A motorbike is then not lawful for you, and the honest alternative is a licence-free electric scooter, which needs no licence or permit from anyone of any nationality.

The reason this is worth a page of its own is that the stamp is not automatic, and the people most likely to assume they have it are the people least likely to.

• Korean national, Korea-issued permit, category A stamp
• Permit carried together with the Korean domestic licence
• Non-commercial riding, which self-ride rental is
• Within one year of your entry into Vietnam

What changed on 23 July 2023

The Vietnam-Korea Agreement on Mutual Recognition of International Driving Permits, signed 23 June 2023 and in force since 23 July 2023, pairs Korea's 1949 Geneva permit with Vietnam's 1968 Vienna one and has each country honour the other's.

There are two international conventions that produce a driving permit. Korea is a party to the 1949 Geneva Convention and issues that permit. Vietnam acceded to the 1968 Vienna Convention in 2014 and recognises that one. For years the two simply did not meet, which is why the advice you will still read everywhere says a Korean permit does not work in Vietnam.

The two governments closed the gap by treaty rather than by convention. The Agreement between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the Government of the Republic of Korea on Mutual Recognition of International Driving Permits was signed in Hanoi on 23 June 2023 and entered into force on 23 July 2023. Korea promulgated it as Ministry of Foreign Affairs gazette notice 969. Vietnam approved an implementation plan for it by Prime Ministerial Decision 163/QD-TTg.

Vietnam's Ministry of Transport has since quoted Article 1(2) of the agreement publicly, answering a citizen's question, which is how the operative text reached the public record. It reads, in the Vietnamese: a Korean citizen holding a Korea-issued international driving permit of category A is permitted to drive motor vehicles matching that category; a Korean citizen holding an international driving permit of any other category is permitted to drive category B motor vehicles.

One detail worth naming because it surprises people: the agreement runs on nationality, not on where the permit came from. A Vietnamese citizen holding a Korean permit is explicitly outside it, and the Ministry of Transport said so in the same answer.

The stamp is the whole game

Korea prints category A only for holders of the dedicated motorcycle licence. An ordinary Korean car licence permits 125cc riding at home but produces an international permit with no motorcycle stamp at all.

At home, a Korean ordinary car licence lets its holder ride a motorcycle up to 125cc. That entitlement does not travel. When the permit office issues the international permit, the motorcycle box is left empty unless the applicant holds the separate motorcycle licence known as 2종 소형.

So a Korean rider who has ridden a 125cc scooter around Seoul quite legally for years can land in Da Nang with a valid international permit that authorises no two-wheeler at all, not even the same 125cc scooter. The agreement caps every non-A category at cars, and there is no discretion in it.

Which means there is exactly one thing to check, and you can check it before you fly. Open the permit and look at the vehicle categories page. If A is stamped, you are covered for motorbikes. If it is not, you are covered for cars.

This is not a Vietnamese quirk. The same missing stamp stops Korean travellers renting motorbikes in Thailand, Indonesia and most of Europe. Vietnam is simply the place where a great many Korean visitors want a scooter.

• 2종 소형, the motorcycle licence — permit is stamped A
• 1종 보통 or 2종 보통, the car licences — no motorcycle stamp, cars only
• 원동기장치자전거, the moped licence — no category A stamp
• Check the categories page of the permit before you travel

Why your own government's page says otherwise

Korea's foreign ministry travel page for Vietnam still states that only Vienna Convention permits are recognised there. It has not been updated since the agreement came into force.

Korean travellers who do their homework properly are the ones most likely to get this wrong, because the official consular advice contradicts the official treaty. The foreign ministry's Vietnam safety page still tells Korean citizens that their Geneva permit is not recognised and that only Vienna permits are. That was accurate before 23 July 2023.

We are not going to tell you to disregard your own government. We will tell you what the two governments signed, when it came into force, and where the text was published, so you can weigh a stale advisory page against a treaty gazette yourself.

It also means you may meet a traffic officer who has not been briefed on it. Practitioners in Vietnam have reported exactly that. Carry the permit and the Korean licence together, keep the entry stamp in your passport handy, and remember that the agreement is between two governments rather than something a rental shop can vouch for.

Where we draw our own line

We put Korean riders with the category A stamp on bikes up to 125cc and no higher, because the agreement does not state how Korean category A maps onto Vietnam's own A1 and A classes.

Vietnam splits its motorcycle licences at 125cc: A1 below, A above. The 1949 Geneva Convention does not split category A at all, so a literal reading of the agreement would let a Korean category A permit reach any motorbike. No published annex says so, and we would rather be certain than optimistic.

Our rule is therefore the conservative one. With the A stamp and the other conditions met, we will put you on a bike up to 125cc. We will not quote you a bigger machine on a reading of a treaty that has not been confirmed, and we will say so rather than quietly showing you a shorter list.

If that changes, because a Vietnamese lawyer confirms the mapping or the authorities publish one, we will change it here and date the change.

If you do not have the A stamp

A licence-free electric scooter needs no licence and no permit from anyone. It is genuinely legal for every nationality, and in a coastal city it covers most of what people actually ride.

Vietnamese law exempts a class of electric two-wheeler from any licence requirement: maximum motor power of 4 kW or under and a design speed of 50 km/h or under, both at once. A machine in that class is lawful for a visitor with no permit at all.

Two things are worth knowing before you take one. Plenty of scooters advertised as licence-free exceed the speed limit on the manufacturer's own figures, so the trim name matters. And a licence-free machine may not exceed 40 km/h on the road under Circular 38/2024, whatever it was built for.

For the coast road, Hoi An and city distances, a proper electric does the job. What it will not do is a mountain pass, and we will tell you that rather than sell you one for it.

Frequently asked questions