🇰🇷How to verify a supplier in South Korea

To verify a supplier in South Korea, look the company up for free in the official National Tax Service (NTS) Hometax business registration status check, plus the Supreme Court Internet Registry Office (IROS) for corporate extracts and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns the free no-login Hometax status lookup takes the 10-digit business registration number and returns whether the business is a continuing operator, suspended (hyueop) or closed (pyeeop), plus its VAT taxpayer type; it does NOT return the address, owners or activity, and the interface is Korean-language only.

The official registry

Registry: National Tax Service (NTS) Hometax business registration status check, plus the Supreme Court Internet Registry Office (IROS) for corporate extracts
Company ID: business registration number (saeopja deungnok beonho, 10 digits, shown as XXX-XX-XXXXX)
Cost: Free basic lookup
Active status: A supplier whose number comes back as a continuing (active) VAT-registered business on Hometax is really registered with the Korean tax authority today; suspended or closed means stop. Ask the supplier for their business registration certificate (saeopja deungnokjeung) and check the number yourself.

Open the official South Korea registry

Honest limits for a foreign buyer: Korea has no free public register of all companies with directors and filings. The corporate register (13-digit corporate registration number, a separate ID from the tax number) lives at the Supreme Court IROS (iros.go.kr), where a certified extract costs about 700 won to view and 1,000 won to issue, but the whole interface is Korean-only and needs an account, so most foreign buyers ask a Korean partner or agent to pull it.
For listed and externally audited companies the story flips to excellent: DART (dart.fss.or.kr, English version englishdart.fss.or.kr) publishes audited filings, ownership and financials free with no account, so always check DART first; a large Korean manufacturer will be there.
Korea's VAT is a flat 10 percent (nts.go.kr). On the Hometax check, a real manufacturer or wholesaler is normally a general taxable person; a simplified taxpayer status signals a micro business, which is a mismatch with claims of factory-scale export capacity.
Exporter vs maker: Korea has a strong trading-company (mudang sangsa) tradition, so the firm quoting you often trades another factory's goods. The business registration certificate states the business type and item (eoptae and jongmok); ask for it and compare with the claimed products, and treat a refusal to share this routine document as a red flag, since every Korean company shows it freely in domestic trade.

Sector export licences

Being a registered, active company is not the same as being allowed to export a specific product. In South Korea, these sectors carry their own export licence or certificate from a named regulator, so a genuine exporter of these goods holds a current one. Ask for it, then check it at the source.

cosmeticsmandatory
export certificate from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
Verify the manufacturer's CGMP compliance certificate status through the official MFDS medical and cosmetic product portal.
Official source
dairymandatory
health certificate from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
Verify the processor's export approval and sanitary compliance record in the MFDS animal products database.
Official source

This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice, and the list is not exhaustive.

Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer

The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.

Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.

General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.

Verify it in four steps

1
Open the National Tax Service (NTS) Hometax business registration status check, plus the Supreme Court Internet Registry Office (IROS) for corporate extracts
National Tax Service (NTS) Hometax business registration status check, plus the Supreme Court Internet Registry Office (IROS) for corporate extracts is the official government record of companies in South Korea. Basic name or number search is free.
2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its business registration number (saeopja deungnok beonho, 10 digits, shown as XXX-XX-XXXXX). If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
A supplier whose number comes back as a continuing (active) VAT-registered business on Hometax is really registered with the Korean tax authority today; suspended or closed means stop. Ask the supplier for their business registration certificate (saeopja deungnokjeung) and check the number yourself.
4
Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.

This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.

We do this check for you

On every South Korea company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine South Korea suppliers, not just the loudest.

Check a supplier Browse South Korea suppliers

Related guides

Questions

Is checking a South Korea supplier free?

Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the National Tax Service (NTS) Hometax business registration status check, plus the Supreme Court Internet Registry Office (IROS) for corporate extracts is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.

What ID does a South Korea company have?

Its business registration number (saeopja deungnok beonho, 10 digits, shown as XXX-XX-XXXXX). Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the National Tax Service (NTS) Hometax business registration status check, plus the Supreme Court Internet Registry Office (IROS) for corporate extracts and check the registered name matches.

How do I know a South Korea supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?

The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. Honest limits for a foreign buyer: Korea has no free public register of all companies with directors and filings. The corporate register (13-digit corporate registration number, a separate ID from the tax number) lives at the Supreme Court IROS (iros.go.kr), where a certified extract costs about 700 won to view and 1,000 won to issue, but the whole interface is Korean-only and needs an account, so most foreign buyers ask a Korean partner or agent to pull it.