Current time in Seoul
Seoul, South Korea, keeps Korean Standard Time at UTC+09:00 all year, with no clock changes.
Current time in Seoul
00:22:03
Asia/Seoul · UTC+09:00
Time zone in Seoul
Sunrise and sunset in Seoul
Sun and clock in Seoul
Averaged over the year, solar noon in Seoul comes at 12:32, because the city lies about 8° west of the meridian its clock is set to.
Daylight through the year in Seoul
San Francisco (37.8°N) and Athens (38.0°N) lie on almost the same parallel as Seoul, so their days stay within 3 minutes of Seoul’s all year; the clock in San Francisco is 16 h or 17 h behind Seoul, depending on the date, and in Athens 6 h or 7 h behind Seoul, depending on the date.
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Day length |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 15 | 07:12 | 17:21 | 10 h 9 m |
| December 15 | 07:40 | 17:15 | 9 h 35 m |
| January 15 | 07:46 | 17:37 | 9 h 51 m |
| February 15 | 07:22 | 18:11 | 10 h 49 m |
| March 15 | 06:43 | 18:39 | 11 h 55 m |
| April 15 | 05:57 | 19:07 | 13 h 10 m |
| May 15 | 05:23 | 19:34 | 14 h 11 m |
| June 15 | 05:10 | 19:55 | 14 h 45 m |
| July 15 | 05:23 | 19:53 | 14 h 31 m |
| August 15 | 05:48 | 19:25 | 13 h 37 m |
| September 15 | 06:14 | 18:41 | 12 h 27 m |
| October 15 | 06:40 | 17:56 | 11 h 16 m |
When the clocks change in Seoul
Seoul has kept UTC+09:00 since October 9, 1988. The last time its clock showed anything else was from May 8, 1988 to October 9, 1988, when it ran at UTC+10:00. That was the last of 8 such spells in the record since 1900. The record opens with Seoul’s own local mean time, UTC+08:27:52, kept until 1908.
Calling Seoul from another time zone
| Place | Seoul’s 09:00–17:00 there | Shared working hours | Over the next 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| UTC | 00:00–08:00 | — | — |
| New York | 19:00–03:00 (previous day) | none | none all year |
| London | 00:00–08:00 | none | none all year |
| Tokyo | 09:00–17:00 | 8 h, 09:00–17:00 Seoul time | always 8 h |
At 09:00 on Monday, November 9, 2026 in Seoul, 30 listed cities, including São Paulo and Lima, are still on Sunday. At 17:00 on Friday in Seoul, no other city in this directory has reached Saturday yet.
Seoul compared with other cities
| City | Local time | Date | UTC offset | Difference from Seoul | Over the next 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | — | — | UTC-05:00 | 14 h behind | 14 h behind / 13 h behind |
| London | — | — | UTC+00:00 | 9 h behind | 9 h behind / 8 h behind |
| Dubai | — | — | UTC+04:00 | 5 h behind | all year |
| New Delhi | — | — | UTC+05:30 | 3 h 30 min behind | all year |
| Singapore | — | — | UTC+08:00 | 1 h behind | all year |
| Tokyo | — | — | UTC+09:00 | the same time | all year |
| Sydney | — | — | UTC+11:00 | 2 h ahead | 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead |
Nearby cities
| City | Distance | Clock | Solar noon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osaka | 830 km east | same clock | 34 minutes earlier |
| Shanghai | 870 km south-west | 1 h behind | 22 minutes later |
| Beijing | 950 km west | 1 h behind | 42 minutes later |
| Tokyo | 1,150 km east | same clock | 51 minutes earlier |
| Taipei | 1,480 km south | 1 h behind | 22 minutes later |
| Shenzhen | 2,080 km south-west | 1 h behind | 52 minutes later |
| Hong Kong | 2,090 km south-west | 1 h behind | 51 minutes later |
| Manila | 2,620 km south | 1 h behind | 24 minutes later |
Beyond Seoul’s own identifier, the nearest city in this directory on exactly the same clock is Osaka, 830 km to the east, on Asia/Tokyo.
Time zone rules: IANA tz database release 2026c, applied when this page was generated on 2026-11-02.
Frequently asked questions
What time zone is Seoul in?
Seoul keeps Asia/Seoul, Korean Standard Time, at UTC+09:00 all year. The identifier is named after Seoul itself.
Is all of South Korea on the same time as Seoul?
Yes. Asia/Seoul is the tz database’s only entry for South Korea, and Seoul keeps it.
Which other countries keep exactly the same time as Seoul?
Indonesia (Jayapura), Japan, North Korea, Palau, Russia (Chita, Khandyga and Yakutsk) and Timor-Leste keep exactly Seoul’s clock, with no clock changes either.
What is the time difference between Seoul and Shanghai?
The clock in Shanghai, China, about 870 km away and the closest city in this directory on a different clock, is 1 h behind Seoul.