Korea runs on a single timezone nationwide: Korea Standard Time (KST), UTC+9. There's no daylight saving, so the offset from home doesn't shift with the seasons the way it might with parts of the US, UK or Australia.
Roughly, at a glance
- US East Coast: Korea is 13–14 hours ahead (14 during US daylight saving, 13 during US standard time).
- US West Coast: Korea is 16–17 hours ahead.
- UK: Korea is 8–9 hours ahead (8 during UK daylight saving/summer, 9 during UK winter).
- Australia (Sydney/Melbourne): Korea is usually 1–2 hours behind, since Australian daylight saving shifts the gap — check the exact offset for your travel dates.
- Japan: same time as Korea — no adjustment needed at all.
Always double-check the live offset for your exact dates rather than relying on a fixed number — daylight saving elsewhere (Korea itself doesn't observe it) is what moves the gap around.
Jet lag, in practice
Flying from the Americas is the roughest direction — you're crossing most of a full day. A few things that actually help:
- Try to shift your sleep schedule a little in the days before you fly.
- On the flight, set your watch to Korean time immediately and sleep/eat on that schedule rather than your home one.
- Get outside in daylight on arrival — even a short walk — rather than heading straight for a dark hotel room and a nap.
- Give yourself an easy first day. Don't schedule an ambitious itinerary for day one; the second and third days are usually when you actually feel normal again.
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