Korean Law in English
Laws › Personal Information Protection Act › SECTION 1 Collection, Use, and Provision of Personal Information

Personal Information Protection Act — Article 21 (Destruction of personal information)

개인정보 보호법 제21조

This English translation is based on the Korean text effective 2025-10-02. The Korean law has since been amended (current version effective 2026-09-11) — check the Korean original.

(1) A personal information controller shall destroy personal information without delay when the personal information becomes unnecessary owing to the expiry of the retention period, attainment of the purpose of processing the personal information, the expiry of the processing period of pseudonymized information, etc.; provided, this shall not apply where the retention of such personal information is mandatory by other statutes or regulations. <Amended on Mar. 14, 2023>

(2) When a personal information controller destroys personal information pursuant to paragraph (1), measures necessary to prevent recovery and revival shall be taken.

(3) Where a personal information controller is obliged to retain, rather than destroy, personal information pursuant to the proviso of paragraph (1), the relevant personal information or personal information files shall be stored and managed separately from other personal information.

(4) Other necessary matters, such as the methods to destroy personal information and its destruction process, shall be prescribed by Presidential Decree.

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Korean original (law.go.kr) · Get articles as JSON via API

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