Starting in 2023, all South Koreans will officially be one year younger. This is because from June next year South Korea will cease to apply the “Korean age” and will instead adopt the internationally recognized standard method.
It is that in the Asian country every time a child is born it is considered to be 1 year old. When the new year comes they add another, and so on. If, for example, a child is born in December, he will be 2 years old in a few days.
Parliament confirmed this Thursday that this will change from June next year. A law has been passed that will eliminate two of the three traditional methods of age counting in that country. One of them will be the aforementioned “korean age”, which will cease to apply in official documents.
The move is part of a pledge by President Yoon Suk-yeol to reduce confusion in age counting by adopting the system used by the rest of the world.
The 3 ways to count age in South Korea
As we said, the “Korean age” which will cease to be valid in 2023 is currently not the only way to count the years in the Asian country.
Officially, South Korea has used in most legal definitions and administrative processes the international counting system known by all (which from June will become the only one).
In third place there is the age count method every january 1. In this case – much like the birthday every New Year’s – the children are born at 0 and turn 1 on the first day of the year.
This third method is used to define the legal age in some areas of law that include many people, such as conscription or who is considered a minor in abuse cases.
Who is Yoon Suk-yeol?
President Yoon won the election on March 9. He prevailed by less than a point Lee Jae-myung, the candidate of the ruling party. The 0.73% difference was the closest in a South Korean election.
Yoon is a 60-year-old lawyer and prosecutor. In his youth he fought against the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan before settling in Daegu, a conservative stronghold of the country he presides over.
Throughout his career, Yoon has conducted high-profile political and business investigations in South Korea. He has investigated, for example, former members of the administration, the chairman of Hyundai Motor, powerful businessmen, former chairman of the Conservative Party and the Intelligence Service.
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.