How to Call Korea from the US and Europe

Do you need to call a South Korean phone number found on a website or in someone’s e-mail signature? This article will show you the steps.

When you call Korea, you would probably be hoping that an English-speaking person will answer -- but you never know. At the bottom of this article, we have included one useful Korean sentence (with sound files) meaning, “Is there someone who can speak English?”.

How to Call a Korean Phone Number from the United States

Press the following numbers on your keypad in the order shown:

(a) + (the “plus” sign) On a cell phone or another digital device, you can enter the “+” sign by double clicking the zero (0) button of the keypad. If you are using a traditional analog telephone, dial 011 instead of “+”.
(b) 82 (the country code of South Korea)
(c) city code IMPORTANT: A Korean city code begins with a “0”; this initial “0” should be omitted in international calling.
(d) the phone number (typically 7 or 8 digits)

Suppose that you found a number, 02-nnn-nnnn, in an e-mail signature. “02” is the city code of Seoul, South Korea’s capital. To reach this person using a digital device, enter + 82 2 nnn nnnn (with no space); if you are using a traditional analog phone, dial 011-82-2-nnn-nnnn. Make sure that you omit the initial “0” of the city code “02”.

Other cities have longer city codes. For example, the city code of Busan (a large city, but not the capital) is 051. A Busan telephone number looks like this: 051-nnn-nnnn. To call this number using a digital device, enter + 82 51 nnn nnnn (with no space); if you are using a traditional phone, dial 011-82-51-nnn-nnnn. Make sure that you omit the initial “0” of the city code “051”.

Small cities and provincial towns have even longer city codes. For example, the city code of Suwon (an important industrial city) is 0331. A Suwon telephone number looks like this: 0331-nnn-nnnn. To call this number using a digital device, enter + 82 331 nnn nnnn (with no space); if you are using a traditional phone, dial 011-82-331-nnn-nnnn. Make sure that you omit the initial “0” of the city code “0331”.

The examples given above are landlines numbers. Cell phone numbers in South Korea start with 010, instead of a city code. If someone gave you his/her number as 010-nnnn-nnnn, it’s a cell phone. To reach this person using a digital device, enter + 82 10 nnn nnnn (with no space); if you are using a traditional phone, dial 011-82-10-nnn-nnnn. Make sure that you omit the initial “0” of “010”.

Most South Korean phone numbers have either seven or eight digits (7 or 8 n's in the format used above) in addition to a city code or the cell phone code (010).

How to Call a Korean Phone Number from Europe

If you are calling South Korea from France, Germany, U.K. and many other parts of Europe using a cell phone or another digital device, refer to the above instructions. The procedure is the same as calling from the United States. If you are using a traditional analog phone, however, there is a slight difference: before the country code, dial 00 (not 011 as in the case of the United States).

What is the Time Zone for Korea?

The best way to find out the current time in Korea without confusion is typing “current time in Korea” in Google. It will show the current Korean time (and date), which you can compare with your local time. All parts of Korea belong to one time zone.

How to Say, “Is there someone who can speak English?”

When you call a South Korean business office, expecting that they would speak English, it could be frustrating if the person who picks up the phone is unresponsive to your English. In such a situation, you can say the sentence given below to ask for an English-speaking person. For this purpose, we chose the shortest possible expression, avoiding hard-to-simulate consonants and vowels as much as possible.

A Compromised Version

If you find the sentence above too difficult to simulate, you can say only the first part of it, as shown in the next table. It is an incomplete sentence, but it has enough elements to make you understood, given the circumstance.

• Virtual Meeting Interpretation
• Legal Translation
• Engineering Translation
• Medical Translation