KB News Desk
The museum attracts almost 3.8 million visitors in H1
The National Museum of Korea welcomed a surge in visitors in the first half of 2026, with numbers climbing 39.7 percent compared with the same period last year.
It marks the first time that half-year attendance has surpassed 3 million since the museum opened in 1945. The six-month figure even exceeds the museum’s total attendance for all of 2024, which stood at 3.78 million visitors.
The rise was especially pronounced among international visitors, whose January-June numbers jumped 68.8 percent from 97,985 in 2025 to 165,505 this year.
In 2025, the museum in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, drew 6 million visitors, ranking it among the top three most-visited museums in the world, according to The Art Newspaper.
Given recent attendance trends, most observers expect it to reach the 6 million mark for a second consecutive year.
Upcoming exhibitions in the second half of the year include “The Korean Table: Food, Nature, and Life,” themed around Korean cuisine, and “Amazing Thailand: Masterpieces of Thai Art,” which introduces Thai culture and art to Korean audiences.
The museum will also adjust operating hours for the peak summer season. From July 27 to August 17, its usual opening (9:30 a.m.) and closing (5:30 p.m.) times will shift by 30 minutes to 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, to extend daily viewing hours by an hour. Extended hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays will remain unchanged, with closing at 9 p.m.
