EST to KST time
Add 14 hours to Eastern Standard Time, or 13 hours to Eastern Daylight Time, to get the time in Seoul. 8:00 AM in New York is 10:00 PM in Seoul in winter and 9:00 PM in summer, on the same date; from late morning onward Korea is already on tomorrow.
Convert the other way: KST → EST
- Difference right now
- KST 13 hours ahead of EST
- Shared office hours
- No weekday working hours overlap; one side has to stretch before 9:00 or after 17:00.
- Daylight saving
- Only EST shifts its clocks
EST to KST, hour by hour
Every hour of the day, using today's offsets (daylight saving is applied automatically).
- 12:00 AM1:00 PM
- 1:00 AM2:00 PM
- 2:00 AM3:00 PM
- 3:00 AM4:00 PM
- 4:00 AM5:00 PM
- 5:00 AM6:00 PM
- 6:00 AM7:00 PM
- 7:00 AM8:00 PM
- 8:00 AM9:00 PM
- 9:00 AM10:00 PM
- 10:00 AM11:00 PM
- 11:00 AM12:00 AM+1
- 12:00 PM1:00 AM+1
- 1:00 PM2:00 AM+1
- 2:00 PM3:00 AM+1
- 3:00 PM4:00 AM+1
- 4:00 PM5:00 AM+1
- 5:00 PM6:00 AM+1
- 6:00 PM7:00 AM+1
- 7:00 PM8:00 AM+1
- 8:00 PM9:00 AM+1
- 9:00 PM10:00 AM+1
- 10:00 PM11:00 AM+1
- 11:00 PM12:00 PM+1
Calling family in Korea from the East Coast
The New York and New Jersey area has one of the largest Korean American communities in the country, from Flushing to Fort Lee, and the most common question is when to call home. Sunday evening on the East Coast is Monday morning in Korea: 7:00 PM Eastern on Sunday is 9:00 AM Monday in Seoul in winter and 8:00 AM in summer. Saturday evening Eastern reaches grandparents on Sunday morning, before church or a family lunch.
From 10:00 AM Eastern in winter, or 11:00 AM in summer, Seoul has passed midnight. Birthday messages sent in the New York afternoon therefore arrive a day late in Korea; send them the evening before. Korea switched official ages to the international count in June 2023, the same count the age calculator uses.
Holidays that move with the moon
Korea's two biggest holidays follow the lunar calendar. Seollal, the Lunar New Year, falls in January or February, and Chuseok, the harvest festival, in September or early October. Each runs for at least three days, and offices, banks and many shops close. Plan deliveries and deadlines with Korean partners around them, because the dates change every year in the Western calendar.
Abbreviations are simple for South Korea: KST means UTC+9. North Korea is the one footnote. From August 2015 to May 2018 Pyongyang ran its own UTC+8:30 time, then moved back to match Seoul, so both Koreas share UTC+9 again.
Clock changes this year
- Mar 8, 2026EST: clocks go forward, UTC−5 → UTC−4
- Nov 1, 2026EST: clocks go back, UTC−4 → UTC−5
- —KST: no clock changes this year
Cities on these zones
Other conversions with these zones
Frequently asked questions
- What time is it in Seoul at 8 AM Eastern?
- 10:00 PM in Seoul during US standard time and 9:00 PM during daylight time, on the same calendar date.
- Does North Korea use the same time as South Korea?
- Yes, since May 2018. Between August 2015 and May 2018 North Korea used UTC+8:30, half an hour behind Seoul.
- When are Seollal and Chuseok this year?
- Both follow the lunar calendar, so their Western dates change annually: Seollal lands in late January or February and Chuseok in September or early October. Check the Korean public holiday list for the exact days.
- What is a good time for a weekly call from New York to family in Korea?
- Sunday between 7:00 and 9:00 PM Eastern, which is Monday morning in Korea, or Saturday evening for a Sunday-morning call.
- Why does the East Coast–Korea gap shrink by an hour in March?
- The US moves its clocks forward on the second Sunday of March while Korea does not, so the gap drops from 14 to 13 hours until the first Sunday of November.