War Memorial of Korea
전쟁기념관
Closes at 17:40, not 18:00, and stops admitting visitors at 17:00 — a 40-minute gap that catches people who arrive after an afternoon elsewhere. Closed Mondays, and when a holiday falls on a Monday the closure moves to the day after, which is the rule most itineraries miss.
Language
Place information
- Korean name
- 전쟁기념관
- Address
- 29 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04353
- Nearest station
- Samgakji (War Memorial) Station (삼각지역) (Exit 12) · 3-min walk, Samgakji (War Memorial) Station (삼각지역) (Exit 1) · 5-min walk, Namyeong Station (남영역) (Exit 1) · 10-min walk
- Opening hours
- 09:30–17:40 (last entry 17:00)
- Closed
- Every Mon (when a public holiday falls on that Monday, the closure moves to the day after the holiday) · Jan 1 · Seollal · Chuseok
- Time needed
- Half day
- Admission
- Free
Prices
| Admission | FreeThe exhibition halls are free. Hired-in exhibitions are charged separately. |
|---|
What to see
Memorial Hall
Reached from the second-floor central hall. Colonnade and a 'star of the nation' stand for the unnamed dead, and three works — Creation, The Spirit of the People, and Footsteps of Defence — make up the room.
War History Room
Photograph: Eomshimgap and pigabju leather armour (war history hall)
Chronological, and it starts further back than the name suggests: the Palaeolithic through the Iron Age, and Gojoseon, founded in the Bronze Age as the first state on the peninsula.
Koreanidentity10000 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Korean War Room I
From the division of the peninsula at the 38th parallel after liberation to the two governments of 1948, with the documents of independence and of the preparation for war.
Korean War Room II
From the crossing of the 38th parallel on 1 October 1950 — after Incheon and the recapture of Seoul on 28 September — through to the armistice and what the war left.
Korean War Room III (UN Room)
For the 40,790 UN soldiers who died under the UN flag across three years and one month. The first zone stages the UN flag, a wall of tear-shaped images and the UN Memorial Cemetery; the second holds the Security Council's resolution to intervene and the first Secretary-General's effects.
North Korean Provocations Room
Provocations by land, sea and air, told through objects; nuclear and missile provocation sorted by type, and the response to each.
Donations Room
Three hundred and sixty-four donated objects, arranged under eight themes — record, military, reporting, education among them — and four special ones.
Overseas Deployment Room
The Vietnam deployment — some 320,000 personnel over eight years and eight months, from July 1964 to March 1973 — under four headings: understanding the war, cooperation and support, operations and results, and the end and the reconciliation.
Armed Forces Development Room
Past the 'people's army' sculpture, a timeline: the founding of the army, navy and air force, then decade by decade from post-war reorganisation in the 1950s to the 1990s and after. The history of women in the forces is here too.
Large Weapons Room
Photograph: T-34-85 tank (large weapons hall)
Opened for the memorial's thirtieth anniversary. Military technology after the Second World War, and through it the scale of what the Korean and UN forces faced.
Hyeonjunchoe909 (Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0)
Korean War Leaders Room
The choices two leaders faced between the outbreak and the armistice, in audio and video. Their desks are reconstructed, and an AR piece puts the visitor in the moment of decision.
Photo 1 of 2
Outdoor Exhibition Area
Photograph: B-52D bomber (outdoor exhibition ground)Photograph: MiG-19 fighter (outdoor exhibition ground)
Some seventy large weapons outside: Korean War equipment, and post-1945 aircraft, missiles, armoured vehicles and tanks from around the world. The armoured vehicles are open to walk into, and a full-size replica of PKM-357, lost in the 2002 Yeonpyeong engagement, serves as a security exhibit.
Richard Mortel (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) · Balon Greyjoy (Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0)
Commemorative Sculptures
Photograph: The Korean War monument
The bronze Peace Clock Tower of 2002: two girls on a heap of scrapped weapons, each holding a clock. The standing girl's shows the current time; the seated girl's is stopped at four in the morning on 25 June 1950. The 6·25 Tower and the thirty-eight figures of the Guardian Statues were added for the armistice's fiftieth anniversary in 2003.
Matt Kieffer (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Memorial Hall selected
Visiting rules
- PetsAllowed with conditions
- No pets other than guide dogs.
- War Memorial of Korea — visitor information ·
- Food and drinkNot allowed
- Food may not be brought in, to protect the exhibits and the visit.
- War Memorial of Korea — visitor information ·
- PhotographyAllowed with conditions
- No flash, tripod or selfie stick, and no commercial photography.
- War Memorial of Korea — visitor information ·
- VehiclesNot allowed
- Bicycles, kick scooters, inline skates and skateboards may not be used in the outdoor exhibition area.
- War Memorial of Korea — visitor information ·
Nearby
Won Daegutang
A cod soup house of more than thirty years, serving the offal, clear and head variants beside the standard bowl.
Itaewon Children's Park
A neighbourhood children's park at the foot of Gyeongnidan-gil in Itaewon 2-dong — slides, a seesaw, swings and benches. It is the only park among the six 《Itaewon Class》 locations the Korea Tourism Organization names.
National Museum of Korea
Two closure rules, not one, and they are not the same thing: the museum itself shuts on only three days a year, while the permanent galleries take a quarterly Monday off with the garden still open. Wednesday and Saturday run to 21:00 — the only evenings you can see this place without daylight pressure.
G Guesthouse
A guesthouse on Bogwang-ro 60-gil, its facade covered in graffiti of city names from around the world, with a rooftop looking over N Seoul Tower and Itaewon. In the drama it appears as a gosiwon.
Stories about this place
- The War Memorial of Korea: Built on the Army's Own Address
Proposed in 1979, abandoned three times, opened in 1994 on the site the Army Headquarters had just vacated. What the institution sets out to present, and how to read a museum that is also a memorial.
- Four Major Museums in Seoul, Compared
The National Museum of Korea, the War Memorial, Seodaemun Prison History Hall and Leeum compared on what each holds, where it is, when it closes and what it costs. Three sit in Yongsan and pair easily into one day; only one charges admission.
Nearby Food
- Five Seoul Korean Barbecue Restaurants: Hanwoo, Galbi, Bulgogi and Pork Belly
- What the broth is made of — eight Seoul houses, seven different bases
- Northern Korean Food in Seoul: Naengmyeon, Eobok-jaengban, Mandu and Kongbiji
- Seven Seoul houses that open for breakfast — before eight in the morning
- Six Seoul houses that make the noodle by hand — kalguksu, guksi, sujebi
- Enjoying Seoul's Cafe Culture
Travel Guides
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- Six in Jongno, and the Evening Each One Opens
Where these facts come from
- War Memorial of Korea — visitor information ·
- War Memorial of Korea — permanent exhibitions ·
- War Memorial of Korea — getting here ·
- War Memorial of Korea — objects in the war history hall ·
- War Memorial of Korea — objects in the large weapons hall ·
- War Memorial of Korea — objects on the outdoor exhibition ground ·
- War Memorial of Korea — commemorative sculptures ·