The National Museum of Korea (NMK) Seoul’s main site in Yongsan District last year saw its visitorship leap to 6.5 million from 3.8 million in 2024. Of these, says a spokesperson, 230,000 (3.55%) were international visitors, the first time its annual international visitors have surpassed 200,000.
Though the globally popular Korean cultural wave is already several years old, a museum spokesperson says there was a new surge of “interest and enthusiasm” for Hallyu, both globally and domestically. That certainly helped drive visitors, but the museum has also been “steadily preparing diverse and substantial content” to meet the renewed interest with “innovative exhibition planning centred on historical artefacts”.
Some of the museum’s permanent galleries were overhauled and special exhibitions “presented fresh interpretations of Korean cultural heritage” and global cultures. Last year’s programming tied into Korea’s 80th anniversary of its liberation from Japanese rule with shows about the naval legend Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545-98) and the marathoner Son Kee-chung, who won the gold medal in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. The museum also commemorated the 20th anniversary of the museum’s relocation to Yongsan with an exhibition of the art of the early Joseon era.
In addition, NMK hosted a loan show from France’s Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac on Pacific Islander culture and opened a new permanent room devoted to Islamic cultures. The museum worked on its audience engagement and accessibility, too, with barrier-free content and greater integration of digital technology.
• Read the full results of our 2025 Visitor Figures survey here
