Aligning the Korean age system with the international norm was one of Yoon’s campaign pledges. ... the mother of a 7-year-old who entered elementary school this year. “In Korean culture, ...

South Korea has been tallying age by birth dates since the 1960s. But while most East Asian countries have scrapped the traditional age-counting system, some have yet to follow suit.

This traditional age counting method puts everyone as a year old at birth and adds a year to their age every Jan. 1 — even if they were born the day before.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol made a campaign pledge last year to scrap the nation’s unique system for calculating age because he said that not only was it confusing, but it was also a ...

In South Korea, “international age” refers to the number of years since a person was born, and starts at zero – the same system used in most other countries.

Another age system exists in South Korea for conscription, school entrance and calculating the legal age to drink alcohol and smoke: a person's age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is ...