Seoul Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in Seoul right now. Maybe you have a call with someone in South Korea, a flight to catch, a match kicking off on local time, or someone to reach before their evening is over. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in Seoul and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Wherever in the world you are reading this from, the clock tracks Seoul and keeps itself right on its own. And Seoul time is simple, because it never changes through the year, as the next section explains.

Seoul does not change its clocks

Here is the part worth knowing about Seoul time, and it makes things easy. South Korea does not use daylight saving. There is no spring forward and no fall back, so Seoul stays on the same clock all year round, Korea Standard Time, KST, nine hours ahead of UTC.

Korea has used daylight saving only on and off in the past, most recently for a short spell around the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but it has not used it since. So there are no change dates to track here. Whenever you look, Seoul is at UTC plus 9, and the clock above simply shows that time.

What time zone Seoul is in

Seoul runs on Korea Standard Time, nine hours ahead of UTC, and it holds that offset every day of the year. The whole of South Korea keeps this single clock.

The neat thing about Korea Standard Time is that it is the same offset as Japan, UTC plus 9. Since neither country uses daylight saving, Seoul and Tokyo always read exactly the same time, down to the minute, all year round. So if you know the hour in one, you know it in the other, which is handy for the busy back-and-forth between the two.

Time difference from Seoul to other cities

Seoul never changes its clocks, so the gap to other fixed-offset places stays the same all year. The places that do use daylight saving, like London and New York, shift by an hour against Seoul between their winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in Seoul.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works.

Say it is 12 noon in Seoul. Tokyo reads the same, 12 noon, since the two share the offset, and Beijing is an hour behind at 11 in the morning. Mumbai is three and a half hours behind at 8:30 in the morning.

Now the long hauls west. In the winter, London is nine hours behind Seoul, so 12 noon here is 3 in the morning in London, and New York, fourteen hours behind, is still at 10 the previous evening. The gap is wide enough that midday in Seoul lands in the middle of the night across Europe and the Americas.

Because those places use daylight saving and Korea does not, the gap shifts by an hour in their summer. London moves to eight hours behind and New York to thirteen. So for a call that has to land just right, check the live clock rather than the rule of thumb.

A couple of things about Seoul time

Seoul sits at about 38 degrees north, so the length of the day swings a moderate amount across the year. Around midsummer there are roughly fourteen and three quarter hours between sunrise and sunset, while around midwinter that drops to under ten hours.

On the clock-against-sun question, Seoul runs a little behind the sun, in the opposite direction to Tokyo. Korea Standard Time is built on the 135 degree east meridian, the same line Japan uses, but Seoul sits well to the west of it. So the sun reaches its highest a little after 12 noon by the clock, at around half past twelve in the middle of the year. Korea keeps the offset anyway, to stay in step with the region rather than split the difference with a half-hour zone.

Other places on the same time

A few places keep the same time as Seoul, or close to it. Here are some to jump to:

• Tokyo time now, on the same offset
• Japan time now, also UTC plus 9
• Beijing time now, an hour behind

And if it is the global reference Seoul is measured from that you are after, see UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in Seoul right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. South Korea does not use daylight saving, so Seoul stays on the same time all year, and the time shown is always correct.

Does Seoul change its clocks for daylight saving?

No. South Korea last used daylight saving briefly around the 1988 Seoul Olympics and has not used it since. Seoul stays on Korea Standard Time, UTC plus 9, with no seasonal change.

Is Seoul the same time as Tokyo?

Yes. Korea and Japan share the same offset, UTC plus 9, and neither uses daylight saving, so Seoul and Tokyo always read the same clock.

What time zone is Seoul in?

Korea Standard Time, nine hours ahead of UTC, held all year. The whole of South Korea keeps this single clock.

What is the time difference between Seoul and New York?

New York is normally fourteen hours behind Seoul, or thirteen when New York is on summer time. The gap shifts because New York uses daylight saving and Korea does not.

What is the IANA name for Seoul time?

It is Asia/Seoul in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It holds a steady UTC plus 9, and it is what drives the live clock on this page.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the Asia/Seoul identifier. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), which keeps and disseminates Korea Standard Time. https://www.kriss.re.kr
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference Korea Standard Time is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time