The Korea Coast Guard (Korean Hangul: 해양경찰청, Hanja: 海洋警察廳, Revised Romanization: Haeyang-gyeongchal-cheong, National Maritime Police Agency) is responsible for maritime safety and control off the coast of South Korea. The KCG is an external branch of Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs at peacetime. Recently, with continuous border crossings by Chinese watercraft, the Korean Coast Guard has deployed a significant number of heavy vessels to the Yellow Sea. As of July, 2009, the KCG has 7,696 people (officers and technical operators) under its disposal. The KCG has its headquarters in Songdodong, Incheon, and has hundreds of smaller operating stations along the coastline of the Korean Peninsula. The Korean Coast Guard operates 4 classes of heavy vessels (over 1000 tons), 3 classes of medium vessels (over 250 tons), and 3 classes of light vessels (speedboats over 30 tons). The KCG also uses several types of 'special purpose watercraft', such as firefighting vessels, barges, high speed scout boats, light patrols, and amphibious hovercraft. The KCG aviation unit fields 6 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 rotary-wing aircraft. The Coast Guard also has its own asymmetric warfare unit, the 'Korean Coast Guard Special Operation Unit'.

A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to being a volunteer organization tasked with search and rescue functions and lacking any law enforcement powers. However, a typical coast guard's functions distinct from typical functions of both the navy (a pure military force) and a transportation police (a mere law enforcement agency).

Among the responsibilities that may be entrusted to a coast guard service are:

During wartime, some coast guard organizations might have responsibilities in harbor defense, port security, naval counter- intelligence and coastal patrols.

The coast guard may, varying by jurisdiction, be part of the country's military, a law enforcement agency, or a search and rescue body. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard is a military branch with a law enforcement capacity, whereas the United Kingdom's Her Majesty's Coastguard is a civilian organisation whose only role is search and rescue. Most coast guards operate ships and aircraft including helicopters and seaplanes that are either owned or leased by the agency in order to fulfill their respective roles.