How can I deliver a parcel from Korea to the US?

Korea Post is the cheapest and most foreigner-friendly way to send a parcel to the US, with private couriers faster and dearer, and sea freight for anything genuinely heavy.

Korea Post options. EMS (국제특급) is the express service, with tracking and either counter drop-off or home pickup. Standard airmail for a small packet is slower and cheaper, and surface mail is cheapest of all and takes one to two months. Rates change and vary by weight band and destination zone, so price your actual parcel on the country rate lookup at ems.epost.go.kr rather than working from a table in a guide. Post office staff complete the customs declaration with you.

One correction worth making, because it appears in a lot of advice: K-Packet is not a heavy-parcel option. It is a small-packet service whose published rate table stops at 2,000g, so 2kg is the ceiling, and it is a contract service — you arrange it with a post office marketing team, not at the counter as a walk-in. For anything over 20kg you are looking at sea freight or a courier's bulk service, not K-Packet.

Couriers. FedEx, DHL and UPS collect from your address with online booking and deliver in a few days, at a clear premium over EMS. For e-commerce returns or consolidated shipments, freight forwarders and consolidation services are the usual route.

US customs, which is the part that changed. The US de minimis exemption ended on 29 August 2025, so a low declared value no longer guarantees duty-free entry — do not plan around a threshold under which "nothing is charged", because that threshold is gone. Product restrictions also bite: Korea Post's notice of 29 July 2026 states that, following the US tariff policy change, postal items falling under quota, anti-dumping or countervailing-duty HTSUS codes cannot be accepted, and lists sugar, tuna, citrus, peanuts and peanut butter, beef, infant formula, chocolate, cheese, milk and other dairy, ice cream and animal feed among them.

Before you pack: check the destination conditions and the notice board at ems.epost.go.kr, declare contents and value honestly on the customs form, and insure anything valuable. Batteries, liquids and food carry their own restrictions. The postal customer centre is on 1588-1300 and there is an overseas line on 82-42-609-4295, weekdays 09:00 to 18:00.

Sources: 인터넷우체국 (ems.epost.go.kr), 우정사업본부 notices.

Last verified: 2026-09-28