• Seoul provides foreign language translations of municipal laws and ordinances in English, Chinese, and other languages for foreign nationals studying and working in Seoul
• Foreign residents are primarily interested in local laws on water supply, followed by construction, and municipal taxes and the city government has translated the largest number of local ordinances among Korean local governments
• A city official says, “It will continue to translate the local self-government laws into foreign languages to ensure that over 260,000 registered foreign nationals can live in Seoul without inconvenience.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced that the city government has provided translations of its local self-government laws for foreign nationals living, studying or working in Seoul. The translated versions basically include English and Chinese translations are added for some ordinances since 2016.

Seoul Legal Administration Services (English): https://legal.seoul.go.kr/legal/english/front/page/main.html

Through this project, the SMG translated 356 local self-government laws into English, which accounts for 32.2% of the city’s total 1,105 ordinances.

Seoul Legal Administrative Services offers many other useful translations of various local laws to help international residents in the city.

This year, the city will provide translations of more than 30 helpful local self-government laws, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government Ordinance on the Crime Damage Prevention for Socially Vulnerable Persons, with regard to providing relief goods to foreign residents and socially marginalized groups, who are vulnerable to crime.

The SMG said that it will actively promote the translation project through Seoul Foreign Resident Center, Counseling Center for Migrant Women, and international student support centers at universities in Seoul.