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Looking for information from someone who's recently visited Korea as a tourist.

With regards to visitors buying a SIM card for local use, I've noticed some countries are totally laissez-faire. You just hand over some cash and get a SIM, like buying a chocolate bar. Nobody asks or cares about your name or anything else.

In contrast, other countries have high paperwork and identification requirements.

(I guess the most extreme is countries like India, where SIMs are highly controlled and foreigners can't get a SIM.)

What is the situation in South Korea? Surely a traveller here has visited lately???

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    You can buy a SIM in India very easily from street vendors, with the SIM registered to some random person's passport :) Same applies in many other seemingly strict countries such as Russia. – JonathanReez♦ Apr 11 at 19:12
  • heh I've never seen that @JonathanReez . – Fattie Apr 11 at 20:07
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    Had no trouble buying SIM cards (already registered, as @JonathanReez says, to some other person) in India, in several different cities, from vendors on the street. – jbg Apr 12 at 13:42
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+100

I have traveled to South Korea as a tourist several times, most recently a few weeks ago. Each time, I bought an inexpensive prepaid SIM card at the airport, valid for a short period of time (several periods were on offer with differing prices, but on the most recent trip I took one that was valid for 5 days). Data was unlimited, but voice and SMS was not supported (but of course you can simply use VoIP and messaging apps).

No identity documentation was requested and the process was very efficient – from walking up to the counter to walking away with a SIM took about two minutes. There were several vendors – I purchased from KT (Korea Telecom) and the others may differ in the details.

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  • fantastic info !!!!!! thanks! – Fattie Apr 12 at 13:53
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    Do you mind adding an approximative price? "Inexpensive" means different things for different people – Taladris Apr 14 at 15:46

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