Night Pharmacies, Convenience-Store Medicine and ERs in Seoul at Night

If you have 1339 noted as Korea's medical emergency number, replace it: 1339 does not dispatch ambulances. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) describes 1339 as its 24-hour call centre for information on infectious diseases, and the National Emergency Medical Center says every on-scene emergency is reported to 119.

A second assumption is that Korean convenience stores sell whatever a pharmacy would. They do not: only a short, named list of products can be sold outside pharmacies, one package at a time, and never to children under 12.

This guide covers who to call, where the late-night pharmacies are, what a convenience store can and cannot sell you, when an emergency room makes sense and how to get an interpreter. Every fact comes from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, KDCA, the National Emergency Medical Center, the National Health Insurance Service or the Korea Tourism Organization, checked on 23 September 2026.

Which number to call

119 is the number for an ambulance and for any medical emergency where you are. The National Emergency Medical Center's E-Gen portal (응급의료포털) states that in Korea "모든 현장 응급환자의 처치와 이송 신고는 119번호로" — all reports for on-scene emergency treatment and transport go through 119.

The same page says a 119 call can get you more than an ambulance. It lists patient transport, help with first aid, first-aid instructions, hospital information (병원안내) and disease consultation (질병상담). It also tells callers to stay on the line until the ambulance arrives so the operator can guide them through basic first aid.

E-Gen asks callers to pass the basic facts accurately to the 119 control-room operator. In practice that means knowing where you are: a hotel name and address in Korean, or a nearby subway exit number, will help if your Korean is limited.

E-Gen draws a line between mild and severe cases. If symptoms are mild, it says, it is better to go directly to a nearby clinic or hospital; if symptoms seem very serious, call the 119 ambulance service immediately rather than relying on friends or bystanders.

1339 belongs to KDCA. The agency's English page says the line provides "information and guidelines on major infectious diseases" and "information on infectious diseases that can affect overseas travelers", and that it is "available 24/7/365". From outside Korea it lists +82-2-2633-1339.

For non-Korean speakers, KDCA points callers of 1339 to 1345, the Immigration Contact Center, which it says offers 20 languages. English on 1345 is listed as 9am to 6pm, so it is not a night-time option for most visitors.

The other languages KDCA lists for 1345 run from 9am to 10pm: Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Mongolian, Indonesian and Malay, French, Bengali, Urdu, Russian, Nepali, Khmer, Burmese, German, Spanish, Filipino, Arabic and Sinhala, alongside Korean. None of these hours covers the small hours of the night, which is why this guide points you to 119 and 1330 instead.

Seoul's public late-night pharmacies

Seoul Metropolitan Government designates 40 public late-night pharmacies (공공심야약국) across all 25 of its districts, according to a city page last updated on 7 September 2026. The city designates them so that residents can buy medicine late at night on weekdays, weekends and public holidays.

The hours are fixed: 10pm to 1am. The city's own instruction is "전화확인 후에 방문", visit after confirming by phone, so treat the list as a starting point rather than a guarantee.

Not every pharmacy on the list opens every night. By the city's own list, 28 of the 40 open 365 days a year, while 12 open only on certain days, such as Monday, Saturday and Sunday, or Friday to Sunday. Check the day column before you set off.

Four districts have no pharmacy listed as open every day: Jung-gu, Jungnang-gu, Dobong-gu and Eunpyeong-gu. In Jung-gu, which includes much of central Seoul, the two listed pharmacies split the week between them: 대풍약국 on Monday, Saturday and Sunday, and 유쾌한약국 from Tuesday to Friday, so one of the two is listed for each day.

The central districts that visitors use most each have at least one designated pharmacy. The city names these, with the days it lists:

The city lists phone numbers for all 40, for example 02-3210-2292 for 세종약국 in Jongno-gu and 02-542-3696 for 노바약국 in Gangnam-gu. The list is in Korean only, and the city links it to its Smart Seoul Map (스마트서울맵) and to E-Gen's hospital and pharmacy search for directions.

After 1am, none of these pharmacies is listed as open. At that hour your options narrow to the convenience-store list below or, if the problem cannot wait, a hospital emergency room.

What convenience stores can sell

Korea's safety household medicines (안전상비의약품) system has let certain over-the-counter medicines be sold outside pharmacies since 15 November 2012, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The ministry gives its purpose as "약국이 문을 닫는 공휴일 · 심야 시간대 의약품 구입 불편 해소": easing the difficulty of buying medicine on public holidays and late at night, when pharmacies are closed.

The ministry's page, last updated on 31 March 2026, names 13 products in four groups. No official source read for this guide publishes their prices, so the table marks them honestly.

The four groups are fever and pain relievers (해열진통제), digestives (소화제), cold medicines (감기약) and medicated patches (파스). Anything outside those groups, including prescription medicines, still needs a pharmacy, which is where the city's late-night list comes in.

The rules on the seller are strict. A shop must be a retail business with a store open "24시간 연중 무휴", 24 hours a day with no days off in the year; its operator must complete four hours of seller training; it must run a barcode system that blocks prohibited sales; and it must register with the local public health centre (보건소).

The rules on the sale matter more to you. Each sale is limited to one package of a product ("1회 판매수량을 1개 포장단위로 제한"), sales to children under 12 are banned, and the medicines must be displayed separately from other goods, with the store's registration and usage warnings on show.

This list is under review. A July 2026 press report in KPA News, the Korean Pharmaceutical Association's newspaper, says the government plans to revise the designation notice by December 2026 to expand the list to up to 20 products, and describes the current list as 11 products in four groups. That count differs from the 13 on the ministry's own page, and no official explanation for the difference was found.

The same KPA News report says the government also plans, by December, to relax the 24-hour-store requirement for places that have neither a pharmacy nor a 24-hour store. That, too, is a press report of a plan, not a rule in force on the ministry's page.

Until any revision is published, rely on the ministry's list. Under the ministry's rules, a seller must be a store open around the clock and must display its registration, so look for both.

When to use an emergency room

Hospital emergency rooms (응급실) are where serious problems go at any hour, and E-Gen's advice is to call 119 when symptoms seem very serious. For milder complaints, E-Gen points you to a nearby clinic instead.

The city's heat and cold illness surveillance programme lists 68 medical institutions operating emergency rooms as participants; that is a count of participants, not necessarily every emergency department in the city.

E-Gen runs the national search tools for this. Its site map lists an emergency room finder (응급실 찾기), a pharmacy finder (약국 찾기) and a section on moonlight children's hospitals (달빛어린이병원); the Seoul pharmacy page links to E-Gen's hospital and pharmacy search directly. The finders are in Korean.

What an emergency room visit will cost you as a visitor is not published in any official source read for this guide. The National Health Insurance Service's guidance for foreigners ties mandatory health insurance to stays of more than six months, in force since 16 July 2019, and the page read for this guide does not describe cover for short-term visitors.

If you are arriving on a late flight and worried about getting help at the airport end of the trip, the guide to a late-night Incheon arrival covers the first hours on the ground.

Children who fall ill at night

Seoul runs a separate network for sick children at night and on holidays. The city's table, current as of 1 August 2026, lists four kinds of institution under its 우리아이 (our child) programme and the moonlight children's hospital scheme.

The 21 moonlight children's hospitals (달빛어린이병원) give outpatient care to children with mild conditions outside the emergency room, on weekday evenings and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. They are the city's listed option for a child with a mild illness that is not an emergency.

For evenings only, 10 우리아이 안심의원 (child reassurance clinics) have paediatric specialists seeing patients on weekdays from 7pm until 9pm or 10pm, closed at weekends and on holidays. Eight 우리아이 안심병원 (child reassurance hospitals) see children 24 hours a day, including nights and holidays.

For serious cases, the city lists three 우리아이 전문응급센터, paediatric emergency centres that treat critically ill or injured children 24 hours a day. The city's Smart Seoul Map has a layer combining public late-night pharmacies and moonlight children's hospitals, linked from the pharmacy page.

Remember the age rule when you shop: a convenience store may not sell the listed medicines to a child under 12, so an adult has to buy them. Three of the 13 listed products are children's formulations.

Getting an interpreter on the phone

The Korea Tourism Organization's 1330 Korea Travel Helpline is a telephone and real-time chat service that includes "Tourist Interpretation" among its services. You dial 1330 inside Korea or +82-2-1330 from overseas.

KTO's page also offers free online voice calls over Wi-Fi and chat through its own 1330 Messenger, KakaoTalk, Facebook and Line. That helps if you have no local phone number, since the online call and chat options run over the internet; KTO notes that Wi-Fi is required for the free call.

Seoul's English site describes how 1330 fits with the emergency services. Its article says 1330 "helps foreigners in distress get emergency aid in collaboration with" 120 (the Seoul Dasan Call Center), 110 (the government call centre), 119, the relevant consulate and 112 (police).

That Seoul article dates from April 2013 and says 1330 answered 24 hours a day in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese. KTO's current page does not restate the hours or languages, so treat that list as the last official statement found rather than a current guarantee.

The helpline has a long record. Seoul's article says KTO launched 1330 in September 1999 as a single national tourist information number that needs no area code from anywhere in the country, and that in 2013 it handled about 900 calls a day, roughly 45% of them from foreigners.

KTO also uses 1330 to take tourist complaints, which it relays to the relevant department and follows up; complaints can also be filed at www.touristcomplaint.or.kr. That route is for problems after the fact, such as a disputed charge, not for urgent care.

Seoul's own 120 Dasan Call Center answers on 02-120 or 02-731-2120, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, according to the city's website footer; from abroad the number is +82-2-731-2120. Calls are charged at normal rates.

A plan for a night-time illness

A clear order of steps saves time when you are unwell in an unfamiliar city. Use this sequence, which follows the official advice above.

The same order works for most small problems on a first night in the city, when you have not yet learned the neighbourhood. The guide to your first 24 hours covers the rest of that first day.

Decide in advance which late-night pharmacy is nearest your hotel. With 40 spread across 25 districts, every district has at least one, and having its name in Korean script and its phone number saved before you need them saves time at midnight.

What this guide does not cover

Emergency-room charges for uninsured visitors are not given, because no official Korean source read for this guide publishes them. Reports of a 2024 rise in co-payments for mild cases at large emergency centres concern insured patients and were seen only in press coverage.

Whether a 119 dispatcher can connect a three-way interpreter was not confirmed from an official page; only press reports were found, so the guide relies on 1330 for language help instead.

The legal ceiling of 20 products for convenience-store medicines, and the planned December 2026 revision, come from a press report only. The statute text and the ministry's designation notice could not be opened on 23 September 2026.

Prices for the 13 listed medicines, and a list of which convenience stores are registered sellers, are not published in the sources read. Dental emergencies and hospital-specific foreign-patient desks are also outside the scope of this guide.

The search tools themselves were not tested. The E-Gen emergency room and pharmacy finders, and the Smart Seoul Map layers the city links to, are named here because official pages link to them, but whether they show live opening status, or work in English, was not checked.

No official English version of the 40-pharmacy list was found; the Seoul page is Korean only, and the English addresses in this guide are transliterations of the district names, with street addresses left in Korean as the city lists them. The city dates its page, most recently 7 September 2026, so check that page for the current list before relying on this one.