South Koreans suddenly become younger thanks to new 'international age' law

Over 50 million South Koreans are now up to two years younger than before, according to a new law. The new rule does away with "Korean age" and "calendar age" and adopts "international age" in "all judicial and administrative areas," CNN reported. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol advocated strongly for the change citing "unnecessary social and economic costs" associated with the Korean age, per BBC.

Previously, South Korea had three age systems. Under Korean age, a person is considered one year old when they're born with a year added on every January 1. Under calendar age, also called counting age, a person is considered zero years old when they're born with a year added on every January 1. International age is the system used widely around the world which is when a person is considered zero years old when they're born and add a year on every birthday. Because of the different definitions, a person could be considered three different ages at the same time.

The new law is expected to "reduce various social confusions and disputes," and "greatly reduce social costs that have been unnecessary due to the mixed use of age standards," said Lee Wan-kyu, the Minister of Government Legislation, at a news briefing. However, some systems, like the legal age of alcohol and tobacco purchases as well as the age of mandatory military service, will still rely on the year a person was born rather than the date, CBS News wrote.

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