Every Korean holiday season the same sentence goes around: “Expressway tolls are waived again this Chuseok.” Open the statute it rests on, though, and the waiver sits behind three separate conditions. One of them leaves the last day of the holiday out.
1. Which days. The Enforcement Decree names the 14th to the 16th of the eighth lunar month — three days. In 2026 that is 24, 25 and 26 September, and Sunday 27 September, the fourth day of the holiday, is not among them.
2. Which roads. “Expressways designated and published by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.” Not every road, and not even every toll road — the paragraph starts from national expressways.
3. Does it have to happen. The Act says the authority “may reduce or exempt” the toll. Even with the days fixed in the Decree, nothing switches on by itself.
The legal basis arrived in 2018
Free holiday tolls are older than that in practice, but the clause that puts them in the Act itself was inserted on 16 January 2018.
Toll Road Act, article 15 (3) A toll road management agency or a holder of toll road management rights may reduce or exempt the toll for vehicles using a national expressway on Lunar New Year’s Day, Chuseok and other days prescribed by Presidential Decree, as prescribed by Presidential Decree. <Newly inserted on 16 Jan 2018>
(4) The State may subsidise all or part of the cost arising from the reduction or exemption under paragraphs (2) and (3), as prescribed by Presidential Decree. <Newly inserted on 16 Jan 2018>
The two paragraphs came in on the same day, and that pairing is the point. One clause waives the toll; the next says the State may cover what the waiver costs. The money does not disappear — the payer changes.
Condition one — three lunar days, not four calendar ones
Enforcement Decree of the Toll Road Act, article 8 (vehicles eligible for reduction and the rates) (2) “Lunar New Year’s Day, Chuseok and other days prescribed by Presidential Decree” in article 15(3) of the Act means the following days. <Newly inserted on 15 Jan 2019>
1. The day before Lunar New Year, the day itself and the day after (the last day of the twelfth lunar month, and the 1st and 2nd of the first lunar month)
2. The day before Chuseok, Chuseok and the day after (the 14th to the 16th of the eighth lunar month)
3. Any other day designated after deliberation by the State Council
| 2026 | Day | What it is | Toll exempt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September | Thu | Day before Chuseok (14th lunar day) | Yes |
| 25 September | Fri | Chuseok (15th lunar day) | Yes |
| 26 September | Sat | Day after Chuseok (16th lunar day) | Yes |
| 27 September | Sun | A Sunday — a public holiday, but two days after Chuseok | No |
The mismatch exists because two different documents are doing two different jobs. The Regulations on Public Holidays for Government Offices treat every Sunday as a public holiday; the Toll Road Enforcement Decree writes down three lunar dates and nothing else. So the traffic heading back into the cities on the final day of the holiday is outside this provision.
The same four days split differently again under employment law — what a shift on those days actually pays is set out in our Korean holiday work pay calculator, where the first question is headcount rather than the date.
Condition two — the roads are listed too
Same Decree, article 8 (3) … the rate of reduction shall be as follows. …
1. 100/100 of the toll
(a) Vehicles for military operations, ambulances and relief vehicles, and vehicles engaged in firefighting activity
…
(e) Vehicles travelling, on the days listed in paragraph (2), on a national expressway designated and published by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Two things are settled in that one item.
- The rate is 100 per cent. The statutory word is “reduction or exemption”, which reads like a partial discount, but for the holiday days the Decree writes 100/100.
- It applies only to expressways named in a ministerial notice. The Decree does not open the road network as a whole; it hands the list to a published notice.
Article 15(3) of the Act itself also says “vehicles using a national expressway”. Set out row by row, the narrowing looks like this.
| Road | Where it lands in the text | Exempt? |
|---|---|---|
| National expressway — in the notice | Act art. 15(3) + Decree art. 8(3)1(e) | Yes — 100/100 |
| National expressway — not in the notice | Same provision — the notice sets the scope | Per the notice |
| Ordinary toll road | Art. 15(3) says national expressway only | Not this clause |
| Privately financed road | The text alone does not settle it | Not verified |
The bottom two rows are the gap between “the expressways are free” and what the text actually says. Which specific routes end up in the notice is something we were not able to check — we did not obtain the text of the notice itself. It is listed under “Where to check further” below.
Condition three — “may”, not “shall”
The verb in article 15(3) is “may reduce or exempt”, not “shall”. In Korean statutory drafting those are not interchangeable — the first creates a discretion, the second an obligation.
| Condition | Where it is fixed | Chuseok 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| The days | Decree art. 8(2) — 14th to 16th lunar day | 24–26 Sept, three days |
| The roads | Decree art. 8(3)1(e) — ministerial notice | Notice to be checked |
| Whether it happens | Act art. 15(3) — “may” | Announced each year |
Item 3 of article 8(2) — “any other day designated after deliberation by the State Council” — works the same way. Adding a day, such as a one-off public holiday, requires a Cabinet decision. Days outside the three written into the Decree do not attach themselves.
The word “reduction” also covers being cut off
Toll Road Act, article 15 (2) … for vehicles for military operations, ambulances and relief vehicles, vehicles engaged in firefighting activity and other vehicles prescribed by Presidential Decree, the toll may be reduced or exempted only where the vehicle is operated for its intended purpose … provided that in any of the following cases the toll shall not be reduced or exempted, with the detailed criteria and procedure prescribed by Presidential Decree. <Amended on 16 Aug 2023>
1. Where article 77(1) of the Road Act has been violated
2. Where article 39(1) or (4) of the Road Traffic Act has been violated
That proviso arrived in 2023. In plain terms, overloading a vehicle or failing to secure its load costs it the exemption. Note where it sits: it is attached to paragraph (2), the standing exemption by vehicle type, and not to paragraph (3), the holiday one — that is what the structure of the article says. How the difference is handled in day-to-day operation is something we could not verify.
Taxes on the car itself follow a different set of rules again — acquisition tax and the annual levy are worked through in our Korean car purchase tax calculator.
Where readers usually go wrong
Is the whole four-day holiday free?
On the text, three days. The Decree names the 14th to 16th of the eighth lunar month, which in 2026 is 24 to 26 September. Sunday 27 September is not in that set, even though it is a public holiday.
Do privately financed roads count?
Article 15(3) says “vehicles using a national expressway”, and the Decree narrows that again to expressways named in a ministerial notice. Whether any privately financed route is included depends on that notice, and we did not obtain it.
Who pays for the waived tolls?
Article 15(4) says the State “may subsidise all or part of the cost”. The money moves rather than vanishes — and note that this clause is a “may” as well.
What if the car has no electronic toll transponder?
The provision sets no condition about the means of payment. Other items in article 8(1) of the Decree do require an electronic payment method, but article 8(2), which carries the holiday days, contains no such wording. How this is handled at the barrier in practice is something we could not verify.
The same article runs every year, but the Decree names three days, narrows the roads to a published list, and leaves the decision itself as a discretion. All three have to line up before anything is free.
Sources
- Korean Law Information Center, Ministry of Government Legislation — statutory text — Toll Road Act, article 15. We read paragraph (3)’s “days prescribed by Presidential Decree” and its “may reduce or exempt” (inserted 16 Jan 2018), paragraph (4) on State subsidy, and the proviso in paragraph (2) removing the exemption (amended 16 Aug 2023) directly in the text.
- Korean Law Information Center — statutory text — Enforcement Decree of the Toll Road Act, article 8. This is where the three lunar dates in paragraph (2) and item (e) of paragraph (3)1 — the ministerial notice and the 100/100 rate live. The most recent amendment is dated 28 July 2026.
- Korean Law Information Center — statutory text — Regulations on Public Holidays for Government Offices. These set the Chuseok holiday as “the day before Chuseok, Chuseok and the day after (the 14th, 15th and 16th of the eighth lunar month)” and also treat Sundays as public holidays. The four-day holiday and the three-day exemption diverge because these two documents cover different ground.
Where to check further
- The actual routes in the ministerial notice. The Decree defers to it and we did not obtain the notice — the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Expressway Corporation publish it ahead of each holiday.
- Whether it applies to Chuseok 2026 at all. Because the Act says “may”, this is decided year by year — check the Ministry’s press releases for that year’s announcement.
- Privately financed roads and payment methods. The text alone does not settle either — ask the operator of the route you plan to use, or the Korea Expressway Corporation customer centre.
Written as of August 2026. The quoted provisions are the text as published by the Korean Law Information Center, and the 2026 Chuseok dates are the lunar dates in the Public Holidays Regulations converted to the solar calendar. The route notice and the decision for this particular year we could not verify — check the Ministry and the Korea Expressway Corporation before you set off. What actually sends people to hospital over the same holiday is set out with ambulance figures in our Chuseok safety piece, and the rest of our everyday tools are in the calculator index.
