Recuperação da nacionalidade (국적회복) — principal

Restoration of nationality (국적회복) — core route: an alien who WAS formerly a national of the ROK ('대한민국의 국민이었던 외국인') may acquire ROK nationality by obtaining nationality-restoration permission (국적회복허가) from the Minister of Justice, per 국적법 제9조제1항. Restoration is a DISCRETIONARY permission (허가) for FORMER nationals — it is structurally distinct from naturalization (귀화, 제4-제7조, for persons who never held ROK nationality) and from reacquisition by report (재취득, 제11조).

• Restoration of nationality (국적회복) — core route: an alien who WAS formerly a national of the ROK ('대한민국의 국민이었던 외국인') may acquire ROK nationality by obtaining nationality-restoration permission (국적회복허가) from the Minister of Justice, per 국적법 제9조제1항. Restoration is a DISCRETIONARY permission (허가) for FORMER nationals — it is structurally distinct from naturalization (귀화, 제4-제7조, for persons who never held ROK nationality) and from reacquisition by report (재취득, 제11조). - Restoration vs. reacquisition vs. ordinary naturalization pathway distinction for former/diaspora Koreans: a person who was formerly a ROK national (e.g., former nationals who acquired a foreign nationality, Sakhalin returnees, overseas adoptees) uses 국적회복 (제9조 restoration permission), NOT 귀화 naturalization. A person who lost ROK nationality via 제10조제3항 auto-loss uses 제11조 reacquisition-by-report. A foreign-nationality ethnic Korean (외국국적동포) who never held ROK nationality is NOT a 'former national' and must naturalize (often via 간이귀화 제6조제1항제1호 where a parent was a Korean national). Restoration is for those who HELD and lost ROK nationality; naturalization is for those who never held it.

• Naturalization-test mechanics (귀화적격심사 / 종합평가 + 면접심사) operationalize the 제5조제5호 basic-knowledge and 제5조제3호 good-conduct requirements at the Enforcement-Decree / Ministerial level: the eligibility examination is conducted as a written comprehensive evaluation (종합평가) and interview (면접심사) with a pass mark of 60 out of 100 (60점 이상); completion of the Social Integration Program (사회통합프로그램, KIIP) advanced level can exempt the written test. The test structure and pass-mark are NOT in the Nationality Act itself — the Act states only the substantive 제5조제5호/제3호 requirement. - Restoration timing and accompanying-minor: a person granted restoration permission acquires ROK nationality at the time they take an oath of citizenship (국민선서) before the Minister of Justice AND are granted a certificate of restoration of nationality (국적회복증서), per 국적법 제9조제3항 (oath-exemption proviso for age/disability; delegation to overseas-mission or regional-immigration-office heads per 제9조제4항). Per 국적법 제9조제6항, the accompanying/concurrent-minor-acquisition rule of 제8조 (수반취득) APPLIES MUTATIS MUTANDIS to restoration — a restoring person's minor child can co-acquire ROK nationality. - REACQUISITION after §10(3) loss (국적의 재취득, §11): a person who lost ROK nationality under §10(3) (failure to renounce/pledge within 1 year) MAY reacquire ROK nationality by renouncing the foreign nationality within 1 year of the loss and REPORTING (신고) to the Minister of Justice; nationality is acquired at the time of reporting. This is a declaratory report mechanism, DISTINCT from §9 reinstatement (국적회복) which is a discretionary ministerial permission.

Primary statute: 국적법 제9조. Operative 1948-12-20–present. Authority: Minister of Justice (법무부장관); Korea Immigration Service (출입국·외국인정책본부).