| Time in South Korea | |
|---|---|
| Time zone | |
| UTC offset | |
| KST | UTC+09:00 |
| Current time | |
| 01:04, 29 November 2025KST[refresh] | |
| Observance ofDST | |
| DST is not observed in this time zone. | |
| Korea Standard Time | |
| Hangul | 한국 표준시 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 韓國標準時 |
| RR | Hanguk pyojunsi |
| MR | Han'guk p'yojunsi |
South Korea has one time zone,Korea Standard Time (UTC+9), which is abbreviatedKST.[1][2] South Korea currently does not observedaylight saving time.[3]
From May 8 to October 9 in 1988,daylight saving time was tested to better accommodate the calendar of competitions held during the1988 Summer Olympics inSeoul.[4][5]
In 1434, inventorChang Yŏngsil developedKorea's first automaticwater clock, whichKing Sejong adapted as Korea's standard timekeeper. It is likely that Koreans used water clocks to keep time prior to this invention, but no concrete records of them exist.[6] In 1437, Chang Yŏngsil, with Chŏng Ch'o, created a bowl-shapedsundial called theangbu ilgu (앙부일구), which King Sejong had placed in public so anyone could use it.[7]
In 1908, theKorean Empire adopted astandard time, GMT+08:30. In 1912, during theJapanese occupation of Korea, theGovernor-General of Korea changed standard time to GMT+09:00 to align withJapan Standard Time. However, in 1954, the South Korean government under PresidentSyngman Rhee reverted the standard time to GMT+08:30. Then in 1961, under the military government of PresidentPark Chung-hee, the standard time was changed back to GMT+09:00 once again.[8]
In order to accommodateAmerican television viewers, South Korea observeddaylight saving time (GMT+10:00) when Seoul hosted the1988 Summer Olympics. The one-hour time change meant that many daytime events could be broadcast live from South Korea when it wasprime time on theU.S. east coast.[4]
North Korea also uses Korea Standard Time. From August 2015 to May 2018, North Korea changed its time zone to GMT+08:30, a time zone known asPyongyang Standard Time,[9][10] but the change was reverted to promote Korean unity.[11][12]
TheIANA time zone database contains one zone for South Korea in the filezone.tab, named Asia/Seoul.
