Can I bring nicotine pouches (white snus, no tobacco) from Scandinavia into Korea?

No. They are not a grey-area product any more — since 24 April 2026 Korean tobacco law covers them.

What changed on 24 April 2026

• The Tobacco Business Act (담배사업법, Act No. 21216 of 23 December 2025, in force 24 April 2026) rewrote the definition in Article 2(1). "Tobacco" is now a product made wholly or partly from tobacco leaf or nicotine and prepared to be smoked, sucked, inhaled as vapour, chewed or sniffed. The previous wording said tobacco leaf only.
• A nicotine pouch is made from nicotine and is designed to be sucked, so it sits inside that definition. The only carve-out is products classified as medicines or quasi-drugs under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.
• What follows from that: only a licensed retailer (소매인) may sell them to a consumer (Article 12(2)), and even a licensed retailer may not sell by post or by electronic commerce (Article 12(4)). The warning-label and ingredient-disclosure duties in Articles 25 and 25-2 apply as well.

The traveller allowance

• The duty-free tobacco allowance for an arriving traveller is 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, e-cigarettes (200 cartridge-type sticks, 20ml of nicotine liquid, or 110g of other types), or 250g of other tobacco. If you bring more than one category only one of them is duty-free, and travellers under 19 get no tobacco allowance at all.
• The published allowance list does not name nicotine pouches as a separate line, so which figure an officer applies to your tins is a customs judgement. Ask 관세청 on 125 before you fly instead of finding out at the red channel.

What to actually do

• Declare them, describe them accurately — nicotine pouches, nicotine as the raw material — and leave them in the original packaging with the ingredient list readable.
• Do not order them to a Korean address. Mail-order and online sale of a tobacco product to a consumer is prohibited, and a parcel can be stopped at customs.
• They are not on general retail sale here, so plan around the quantity you may lawfully carry rather than assuming you can restock in Korea.

Sources: 국가법령정보센터 (담배사업법 제2조·제12조·제25조), 관세청, 찾기쉬운 생활법령정보.

Last verified: 2026-09-28