Pharmacy opening hours in Korea: weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays
Updated September 7, 2026
Long weekdays, short Saturdays, mostly closed Sundays and a rotation for holidays. How the schedule works, why "hours unknown" is not "closed", and how this site decides "open now".
A typical week
There is no national standard, but the pattern is consistent. Pharmacies open around 9:00 on weekdays and close between 18:30 and 21:00 depending on the neighbourhood. Saturday is a half day for many, closing between 13:00 and 15:00. Sunday is the quiet day: outside tourist and nightlife districts most neighbourhood pharmacies are closed, and the ones that open keep short hours.
| Day | Typical hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 09:00 to 19:00, often to 21:00 | Near hospitals: follows the hospital’s hours |
| Saturday | 09:00 to 13:00 or 15:00 | Shopping-street pharmacies stay open longer |
| Sunday | Mostly closed | Tourist areas, stations and hospital fronts are the exception |
| Public holidays | Mostly closed | A rotation of pharmacies opens by district; see below |
Why hours cluster around hospitals
Korea separates prescribing from dispensing: doctors write prescriptions and pharmacies fill them. So a pharmacy next to a hospital lives on that hospital’s patients and mirrors its hours, open late if the hospital has evening clinics, open Saturday morning if the hospital does. Pharmacies in residential streets depend on walk-in customers and close earlier. If you need something late, head toward a large hospital or a busy station rather than a quiet street.
Lunch breaks and early closing
Small pharmacies run by one pharmacist may close for lunch, typically around 13:00, and this is rarely in the registered hours. Some note it as free text, which this site shows on the pharmacy page as a notice from the pharmacy but does not use to decide whether it is open, because the text has no fixed format. On slow evenings a pharmacy can also lock up early. Treat the registered closing time as the latest you should arrive, not a guarantee.
Please call before making a long trip. Every list and pharmacy page on this site repeats this line because the registered schedule is the best public data available, not a live feed from the shop door.
Where these hours come from
The hours on this site come from Korea’s public health registry, published through the national open-data portal. Each pharmacy registers hours per day of the week, plus a separate row for public holidays. We read that registry and refresh it every day; we do not collect or edit hours ourselves.
The registry is much better filled in for weekdays than for Sundays and holidays. Many pharmacies simply never registered a Sunday row. That is the single biggest limitation of any Korean pharmacy finder, including this one.
"Hours unknown" does not mean closed When a pharmacy has no registered hours for today, this site shows it as "hours unknown" and lists it below the ones we can judge. It is not marked closed, because we do not know that. If it is the closest one, calling is worth thirty seconds.
Holidays: the rotation system
On public holidays, especially the three-day Seollal (Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (harvest festival) breaks, most pharmacies close. Each district keeps a rotation so that some pharmacies open each day. The Korean Pharmaceutical Association publishes the rotation on its holiday-pharmacy site (Korean only), and hotel front desks can read it for you.
This site shows holiday hours where a pharmacy registered a separate holiday schedule. Many have not, which is why holiday pages show fewer results than Sunday pages. When a holiday page is thin, the area’s Sunday page is the next best guess.
How this site decides "open now"
- We compare the current time in Korea, to the minute, with today’s registered opening and closing times
- Hours like 20:00 to 02:00, where closing is earlier than opening, run past midnight and are handled correctly: the pharmacy shows open at 1 AM
- On a public holiday we use the holiday row if the pharmacy registered one, and fall back to its Sunday row if not
- Lunch breaks are shown as the pharmacy wrote them but are not used in the decision
- Temporary closures, staff holidays and early closing on a slow day are not in the registry, so they are not reflected
Finding one that is open
- Open the map: it shows pharmacies open at this moment, nearest first, with the closing time
- On a Sunday or holiday, use the "open on Sunday" or "open on public holidays" list for your area. Those lists show registered schedules, not live status, so call the one you pick
- Late at night, the late-night list shows which pharmacies close after 10 PM
Pharmacies open now on the map
This guide is general information for travellers, not medical advice. A pharmacist or doctor decides what is right for you, and opening hours are as registered and may differ on the day.