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 (closed on the day after a holiday period that includes a Monday) · Jan 1 · Seollal (the day itself only) · Chuseok (the day itself only)
- 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
Stories about this place
- A Museum Day in Yongsan: War Memorial, National Museum, and the Han River
Plan a focused museum day through the War Memorial of Korea and the National Museum of Korea, then finish at Ichon Hangang Park, with practical advice on timing, route order, and rainy weather.
- War Memorial of Korea: History and What the Museum Covers
How the War Memorial of Korea came to be built on the former Army Headquarters site in Yongsan after three failed attempts, and what its seven exhibition halls cover, from the Three Kingdoms period to the Korean War.
- 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 is closed, its hours and what it costs. Three sit in Yongsan and pair easily into one day, only one charges for its permanent exhibition, and there are fallbacks for a Monday or any other day the plan falls through.
Nearby Food
Travel Guides
Related articles
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 ·