South Korea

South Korea: capital Seoul, population 51.7M, area 100,210 km². The 29th most populous country, in Asia. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

South Korea occupies the mountainous southern half of the Korean Peninsula, where old capitals, volcanic Jeju and dense modern cities sit within short travelling distances. Goryeo printing blocks and Joseon instruments preserve traditions of organised scholarship and engineering. Hangul, hanji paper, ondol floors, kimjang gatherings and pansori storytelling show design operating through letters, fibres, heat, food and voice.

• Gyeongju served as Silla's capital from the traditionally dated founding in 57 BCE until 935 CE, leaving nearly a millennium of royal tombs, temples and observatories.
• Wang Geon founded Goryeo in 918; the kingdom ruled until 1392, and its name, romanised as Koryŏ, supplied the word Korea.
• Yi Seong-gye founded Joseon in 1392 and moved its capital from Kaesong to Hanyang, present-day Seoul, in 1394; the dynasty lasted 505 years.
• King Sejong's Hunminjeongeum formally introduced a native Korean alphabet with 28 original letters in 1446; UNESCO registered the surviving explanatory manuscript in 1997.

• Court engineer Jang Yeong-sil built the cheugugi rain gauge in 1441, standardising rainfall measurements for Joseon officials alongside his water clocks and astronomical instruments.
• Nam June Paik used the phrase 'electronic super highway' in 1974, two decades before building Electronic Superhighway from 336 televisions and neon outlines of US states.
• Bong Joon Ho's Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards; he also received directing and screenplay Oscars.
• Han Kang's The Vegetarian won the 2016 International Booker Prize, and in 2024 she became the first Korean and first Asian woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

• Bulguksa yielded an 8-by-630-centimetre mulberry-paper Dharani scroll in 1966; nearby Seokguram, built from 751 to 774, sets a granite Buddha inside an artificial grotto.
• Jeju's UNESCO property combines Hallasan's volcanic summit, the tuff cone Seongsan Ilchulbong and the Geomunoreum lava-tube system, formed by basalt flows over hundreds of thousands of years.
• Haeinsa's fifteenth-century Janggyeong Panjeon halls use orientation, clay floors and varied windows to protect more than 80,000 Tripitaka Koreana printing blocks without mechanical climate control.
• Hwaseong Fortress was built around Suwon from 1794 to 1796; its 5.74-kilometre wall combined Korean forms with cranes and pulley systems described by Jeong Yak-yong.

• Kimjang gathers households in late autumn to salt, season and store enough kimchi for winter; UNESCO inscribed the shared preparation tradition in 2013.
• Hanji makers in Korea steam and beat the inner bark of paper mulberry with hibiscus-root mucilage, producing sheets used for books, calligraphy, doors and heated-floor coverings.
• In Joseon homes, traditional ondol sent smoke from an agungi firebox through horizontal flues beneath stone and clay floors before it exited through a chimney on the opposite wall.
• A pansori singer performs beside one drummer for 3 to 8 hours; only five of the original twelve narrative cycles survive, and UNESCO inscribed the form in 2003.

What is the capital of South Korea?

The capital of South Korea is Seoul.

What is the population of South Korea?

South Korea has about 51.7M people — the 29th most populous country in the world.

How big is South Korea?

South Korea covers 100,210 km², making it the 107th largest country by area.

Which region is South Korea in?

South Korea is in Eastern Asia, Asia.