Basic Korean Etiquette for Visitors

At a glance

• 🚭All indoor dining is smoke-free

  Every restaurant, cafe and bakery, with no floor-area threshold. Fine up to KRW 100,000.

• 🚶Don't walk on escalators

  That is the official safety rule — the opposite of 'keep one side clear'.

• 🥄Rice is eaten with a spoon

  Chopsticks are for the side dishes. It is a stated rule, not a preference.

• 🤲Two hands to give and receive

  Objects, money, cards, drinks. Greetings are a short bow.

This is the only item on the page that carries a fine.

Under the National Health Promotion Act, every restaurant, cafe and bakery in Korea is entirely no-smoking, and there is no floor-area threshold — a four-seat neighbourhood cafe is covered exactly as a large restaurant is. So are government buildings and courts, medical facilities, schools including their outdoor grounds, nurseries and kindergartens, libraries, transport facilities such as airports and railway stations, buses with 16 or more seats, office buildings over 1,000 m², and concert halls with 300 or more seats.

Smoking in a no-smoking area carries a fine of up to KRW 100,000. Lighting a cigarette in one is itself the offence.

So if you smoke, do not look for a corner indoors — look for a designated smoking room or an outdoor smoking area. Streets can be regulated too: local districts designate their own non-smoking streets, marked on the pavement and on posts. An ashtray standing there does not tell you the spot is a smoking one, so check the no-smoking signs and the designated-area notices around you.

The utensil visitors get wrong is not the chopsticks. It is the spoon.

• Start once the eldest person at the table has begun eating.
• Eat rice with a spoon. Do not shovel rice with chopsticks. This is the rule Western visitors break most often, and it is stated explicitly.
• Don't touch food with your fingers — the exception is wrapping food in lettuce or perilla leaves.
• Never leave chopsticks or a spoon standing upright in a bowl of rice. That is the shape of a memorial offering and it reads badly.
• When you finish, put the chopsticks and spoon back where they started.
• Pouring drinks for other people rather than for yourself is the friendly move.

None of this has to be perfect. But the upright chopsticks carry more weight than the rest, so if you remember one item, remember that one.

Guides to Korea routinely say: stand on one side of the escalator and leave the other side clear for people walking up. Korea's official guidance says the opposite.

The escalator safety rules published by Korean public bodies read: "keep your feet inside the yellow safety line and do not walk or run", and "always hold the handrail". Seoul Metro has said the same, describing walking or running on station stairs and escalators as "very dangerous" and asking riders not to walk or run on escalators at all.

The numbers point the same way. Seoul's subway stations record an average of 119 falls a year, and of the 597 recorded over the five years from 2020 to 2024, about 46% — 275 of them — happened on stairs and escalators.

On a real platform you will still see one side left clear and people climbing past. This is one of the rare cases where the common habit and the official rule disagree, and this guide follows the rule. If you are in a hurry, take the stairs rather than the escalator.

The rest of subway etiquette is simple. People getting off go first. Keep your voice down, on the phone and in conversation. Leave the priority seats and the pink pregnancy seats empty.

Hand things over with two hands and receive them the same way — money, a card, a gift, a glass. If you need one hand free, support your right forearm with your left. It registers most with people older than you.

A greeting is a short bow. Seoul's tourism guidance describes it as essentially a nod, combined with a soft handshake using both hands. Nothing on a normal trip calls for bending deeply at the waist.

In conversation, not pointing is listed as a rule in its own right. Use an open palm to indicate direction instead. And let people finish their sentence before you respond.

Tipping is usually summarised as "there is none", but the actual wording from Seoul's tourism guidance is more careful: it is not customary, however some people may receive it while some may refuse. Read practically, that means two things — leaving nothing is not rude, and leaving something may be politely declined. In restaurants and taxis the listed price is what you pay.

Shoes come off in homes, temples and guesthouses, and at floor-seating restaurants. A raised step at the entrance or a shoe rack is the signal. Boots that take a minute to unlace will quietly cost you time all day.

Frequently asked questions