United States Army Military Government in Korea
Korea continued to lack formal regulations until 1948, when the United States Army Military Government in Korea enacted temporary measures dealing with nationality as it prepared to establish a South Korean state. Under these measures, a Korean national was defined as any person born to a Korean father. Children born to a Korean mother only inherited her nationality if the father was stateless or had unknown nationality status. Koreans who had acquired a different nationality were considered to have lost Korean nationality, but could have it restored upon renunciation of their foreign nationality or removal from the Japanese "koseki". The first native law regulating nationality was passed by the Constituent National Assembly later that year and largely carried over this framework.