South Korea time now, live flip clock
South Korea keeps Korea Standard Time, KST, UTC+9, across the whole country. Its clocks do not change in any season. The clock above shows Seoul's time live, with seconds.
Time zone in South Korea
Seoul, Busan, Incheon and Daegu keep the same time, with the rest of the country.
- KST, UTC+9
- Not observed
- Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu
How many hours ahead or behind Seoul
On 7 October 2026, Tokyo is on the same time as Seoul.
| City | Difference from Seoul |
|---|---|
| Tokyo | Same time |
| Shanghai | 1 hour behind |
| Los Angeles | 16 hours behind |
| New York | 13 hours behind |
| London | 8 hours behind |
| Sydney | 2 hours ahead |
| Singapore | 1 hour behind |
| Ho Chi Minh | 2 hours behind |
| Your time zone | Detected after this page loads |
Convert a time between any two placesDaylight saving dates around the world
How South Korea keeps its time
- The law behind the time
- 135° E
- The Standard Time Act fixes South Korea's standard meridian at 135 degrees east. That meridian gives Korea Standard Time, KST, UTC+9. The Act lets the President set daylight saving by decree for part of a year. No such decree is in force, so the clocks stay put.
- Kept within nanoseconds
- UTC(KRIS)
- The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, KRISS, generates and maintains UTC(KRIS). That is Korea's real-time realisation of Coordinated Universal Time. It is the basis for Korea Standard Time. It runs on a caesium atomic clock, five hydrogen masers and an in-house frequency standard. KRISS keeps it within a few nanoseconds of Coordinated Universal Time. Its UTCk program sets a computer's clock to KST within a tenth of a second.
- Summer time, tried and dropped
- 0
- South Korea has tried summer time more than once. It ran daylight saving in the late forties and fifties. It lapsed for a few years around the end of the Korean War. It brought the clocks forward again for two summers in the late eighties. Since then the clocks have not moved.
- The same time as Pyongyang
- 0 h
- North Korea keeps the same time as South Korea, KST, UTC+9, with the same letters. That was not always so. For nearly three years the North ran half an hour behind Seoul, as Pyongyang Time. Then it moved its clocks back to match the South. South Korea kept the same half-hour offset itself for several years after the Korean War. It too returned to the present time.
Questions about time in South Korea
What time zone is South Korea in?
South Korea is in Korea Standard Time, KST, UTC+9, and the whole country shares it. Seoul, Busan, Incheon and Daegu all show the same time. The Standard Time Act fixes the meridian of 135 degrees east as the standard. KRISS keeps the national time scale behind Korea Standard Time.
Does South Korea have daylight saving time?
No. South Korea keeps KST, UTC+9 in every season. The Standard Time Act lets the President order summer time by decree. None is in force. The country last moved its clocks forward for two summers in the late eighties.
What is the time difference between South Korea and the US?
In the American winter, Seoul is 14 hours ahead of New York. In those same winter months it is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles. From March to November both gaps are one hour smaller. The US puts its clocks forward then and South Korea does not. So a New York morning meeting is late evening in Seoul.
What is the time difference between South Korea and the UK?
Seoul is 9 hours ahead of London in the British winter. The UK keeps summer time from late March to late October. Then the gap is one hour smaller. Lunchtime in London is already evening in Seoul in either season. The change comes from the British side alone, since Korean clocks stay put.
Is South Korea on the same time as Japan or China?
Japan keeps the same time as South Korea, and China does not. Tokyo and Seoul show the same time all year, since neither country changes its clocks. Beijing is 1 hour behind Seoul in every season. So noon in Seoul is noon in Tokyo and eleven in the morning in Beijing.
Time zone names for developers
| IANA zone | Standard time | Daylight saving time |
|---|---|---|
| Asia/Seoul | KST, UTC+9 | No |
Sources
We checked each fact on this page against these sources on 2 October 2026. Times, offsets and clock changes come from the time zone database.