Republic of Korea 대한민국/大韓民國 (Korean) Daehan Minguk
'Motto:
Anthem:
'
Territory controlled (dark green) Territory claimed but uncontrolled (light green)
Capital and largest city	Seoul 37°33′N 126°58′E / 37.550°N 126.967°E / 37.550; 126.967
Official languages	Korean English Korean Sign Language
Hangul script Hanja script English alphabet
Ethnic groups	Predominantly Korean, no official statistics
Religion (2015)	56.1% No religion 27.6% Christianity 15.5% Korean Buddhism 0.8% Others
Demonym(s)	South Korean Korean
Government	Unitary presidential constitutional republic
• President	Moon Jae-in (문재인 ; 文在寅)
• Prime Minister	Kim Boo-kyum (김부겸 ; 金富謙)
• Speaker of the National Assembly	Park Byeong-seug
• Chief Justice	Kim Myeong-soo
• President of the Constitutional Court	Yoo Nam-seok
Legislature	National Assembly
Establishment history
• First Kingdom	c. 7th century BC
• Declaration of Independence	1 March 1919
• Provisional Government	11 April 1919
• Independence from Japan	15 August 1945
• US administration of Korea south of the 38th parallel	8 September 1945
• ROK established	15 August 1948
• Current constitution	25 February 1988
• Admitted to the UN	17 September 1991
Area
• Total	Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). (107th)
• Water (%)	0.3 (301 km2 / 116 mi2)
Population
• 2019 estimate	51,709,098 (27th)
• Density	Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). (13th)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$2.418 trillion (14th)
• Per capita	$46,451 (29th)
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$1.626 trillion (12th)
• Per capita	$31,246 (27th)
Gini (2016)	▼ 35.7 medium · 93rd
HDI (2018)	0.906 very high · 22nd
Currency	Korean Republic won (₩) (KRW)
Time zone	UTC+9 (Korea Standard Time)
Date format	yyyy년 m월 d일 yyyy. m. d. (CE)
Mains electricity	220V–60 Hz
Driving side	right
Calling code	+82
ISO 3166 code	KR
Internet TLD	.kr .한국

South Korea is a country in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, in the north east region of Asia. The capital city is Seoul. The official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea in English, 대한민국 (Daehan Minguk) in Korean writing (Hangeul), and 大韓民國 in Chinese characters (Hanja). About half of the country's people live in its capital city, Seoul, or near the city in the metropolitan area. Korea's Seoul metropolitan area is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. In fact, some sources say it is the second most populous after Tokyo, Japan. Recently, South korea has become a significant cultural power, largely due to bands like BTS, korean drama, as well as its economic miracle.