ABSTRACT
By tracing the development of South Korea’s legal-passport regimes within the historical and geopolitical settings, this paper examines how exit restrictions have been securitised through their interplay with inter-Korean dynamics and state relations. The demarcation of the 38th parallel between the two Koreas not only reshaped geographical accessibility in the region by transforming what was once internal migration to emigration, but also the regulatory mechanism for containment within the Korean peninsula. The securitisation of departure was institutionalised and operationalised through administrative discretion, exercised under authoritarian governance and legitimised by delegated legislation, thereby hollowing out the constitutional essence of the right to freedom of movement. As a space of contested jurisdiction, departure served as a critical site of state power, a foundation of state identity and a battleground between law and politics.