What is the currency of South Korea?

The currency of South Korea is the South Korean won. Its international currency code is KRW, and its symbol is ₩. The won is issued and managed by the Bank of Korea, the country’s central bank.

The modern South Korean won was introduced on June 10, 1962, replacing the hwan during a major currency reform. It became the country’s sole legal tender after the last hwan coins were withdrawn in 1975. The won is technically divided into 100 jeon, but jeon is no longer used in ordinary transactions because of inflation and changing price levels.

The word “won” is historically related to East Asian monetary terms such as the Chinese yuan and Japanese yen, all connected to a word meaning round. A frequent mistake is answering “yen” or “yuan” because South Korea is geographically close to Japan and China. North Korea also uses a currency called the won, but the two currencies are separate and have different issuers and codes.