When something goes wrong in Korea and every website is in Korean — start here. Practical, sourced, written for foreigners.
🚨 Emergency Numbers in Korea
Every emergency number that works in Korea: 112 police, 119 fire and ambulance, plus the English-speaking help lines (1330, 1345, BBB) that interpret for you when you cannot speak Korean.
🏥 Sick at Night or on a Holiday in Korea
How to find an open hospital, emergency room, or late-night pharmacy anywhere in Korea using the official E-Gen service, what you can buy at convenience stores, and what an ER visit costs without Korean insurance.
💳 Lost Wallet, Card or ARC in Korea
The exact order to follow after losing a wallet in Korea: freeze every card with one call, search the national police Lost & Found portal (Lost112), and reissue your ARC or passport correctly.
📱 Lost Phone in Korea
Track it, lock it, suspend the line, and block the IMEI so the phone is a brick to anyone else — plus where lost phones actually turn up in Korea: subway lost centers, taxis, and Lost112.
🏠 Renting in Korea Without Getting Scammed
Korea's jeonse and wolse deposits are huge by global standards — and so are the scams. How to read the property register, verify the landlord, protect your deposit with a fixed-date stamp and insurance, and the red flags that mean walk away.
🎣 Scam Calls & Smishing in Korea
The scripts scammers use on foreigners in Korea — fake immigration officers, delivery smishing, prosecutor impersonation — what to do in the first 10 minutes if you paid, and why 'easy money transfer jobs' can make you a criminal.
💸 Hospital Bills You Cannot Pay in Korea
No money for an ER or hospital bill in Korea? How foreigners can use deferred payment, 129 emergency welfare, NHIS rules, and travel insurance claims.
💼 Unpaid Wages in Korea
Employer not paying you in Korea? How foreign workers — including E-9 and part-timers — file a labor complaint, get free help, and recover unpaid wages.
🚗 Car Accident in Korea
What to do after a car accident in Korea: 112/119 calls, insurer dispatch, dashcam evidence, Jeju rental cars, fault ratios, and hit-and-run compensation.
🌊 Typhoons, Floods & Earthquakes in Korea
How to get Korea's emergency alerts in English, what the alert levels mean, and exactly what to do in a typhoon, flood, or earthquake as a foreigner.
🙇 Korean Etiquette for Everyday Situations
Invited to a Korean funeral and not sure whether to bow? This practical guide covers the funeral hall step by step (bowing or a moment of silence, condolence money, what to wear and say), weddings, greetings, the dinner table, visiting a home, and subway manners — for foreigners living in Korea.
Not an emergency? Korean slang dictionary — oppa, daebak, nunchi and other words K-dramas never explain.
Each guide is written from official Korean sources — police, fire, immigration, financial regulators — with the phone numbers and steps that actually work for non-Korean speakers, verified and dated. They are English editions of our Korean emergency-help site, adapted for foreigners rather than machine-translated.
Something missing or out of date? Tell us via the contact page.