What are the rules of Korean drinking etiquette?

Korean drinking etiquette is often described to visitors as a hierarchy of deference. That is the mechanism, not the meaning. The organising principle is simpler and more useful: in Korea, drinking together is an act of consideration.

Baeryeo: the one principle

배려 (baeryeo) translates poorly. "Consideration" is close; "attentiveness to the other person's condition" is closer. It is why the glass is small, why you cannot fill it yourself, why you turn your head, and why the modern rule against pressuring anyone to drink is a continuation of the tradition rather than a break with it. Every rule below is baeryeo applied to a specific gesture.

The eight rules

1. Greeting (인사)The first glass is a greeting, not a drink. Before anyone drinks, the table acknowledges each other — a raised glass, a nod, a name. Drinking before that acknowledgement is the one genuine breach.
2. Waiting and avoiding (기다림과 피함)Wait for the most senior person to lift their glass first, and turn your body away from them as you drink. Both are the same instinct: do not put your own drinking in front of someone else's face.
3. No coercion (강권 금지)Nobody may be pressured into drinking. This is the modern Korean norm and the association treats it as a rule of the culture rather than a concession to it. A guest may accept a poured glass and leave it full; a non-drinker takes part with tea, water or a non-alcoholic mix and is a full participant.
4. Glass etiquette (잔 예절)Never fill a glass that is not empty, and never fill your own. A partly full glass is not an oversight — it is the drinker's way of saying they are pacing themselves, and topping it up overrides that.
5. The distance toast (원거리 건배)At a long table you cannot reach everyone. Raise the glass towards the person instead, or tap it once on the table surface. Both count as a completed toast; neither is a lesser version.
6. Holding the bottle (병 잡기)Body of the bottle, not the neck. Label facing the person being served. Left hand supporting the right. The pour is the most watched gesture at a Korean table and it is judged entirely on the hands.
7. Never drink from the bottle (병나발 금지)Soju is poured into a glass and drunk from the glass, every time. Drinking straight from the bottle removes the pouring — and therefore removes the entire social mechanism the table is built on.
8. Know the equipment (주도구)The small glass, the shared bottle, the food in the middle. The glass is small so that it is refilled often, and it is refilled often so that people keep turning towards each other. Passing your own used glass to someone else (잔 돌리기) was once common and has largely disappeared since 2020; do not initiate it.

What changed recently

Three things, all within about a decade. Pressuring people to drink (강권) moved from normal to unacceptable, and workplaces now say so explicitly. Passing a used glass around the table (잔 돌리기) effectively ended after 2020. And drinking alone (혼술) stopped being pitiable and became ordinary. The etiquette did not weaken; the coercion was removed from it, which is arguably what baeryeo required all along.

For visitors

You are not expected to know any of this, and nobody will hold it against you. If you want a short version: let someone pour for you, pour for them, use two hands with anyone older, and drink at your own pace. That covers nearly every situation you will meet. The full ten-step sequence is the same etiquette in the order it actually happens.