The national parks of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

are preserved parcels of

public land In all modern states, a portion of land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land, state land, or Crown land (Australia, and Canada). The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countrie ...

on which most forms of development are prohibited. They cover a total of 6.6% of the country's area, and are typically located in mountainous or coastal regions. The country's largest mountain park is

Jirisan National Park Jirisan National Park ( ko, 지리산국립공원, 智異山國立公園) is a national park in South Korea, located on the boundaries of Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do, and Gyeongsangnam-do. It is also located bordering the towns of Namwon, Gurye, ...

in the southwest; this was also the first national park to be designated in 1967. The largest marine park is Dadohaehaesang, with an area of more than , but almost all of this is water. The smallest park is Wolchulsan, with an area of only . As of 2016, there are 22 national parks in South Korea; the parks, with the exception of

Hallasan National Park Hallasan National Park ( ko, 한라산국립공원, 漢拏山國立公園) is located in the province of Jeju-do, South Korea. It was designated as the 9th national park in 1970. It features the highest mountain in South Korea, the shield volcano ...

, are managed by the Korea National Park Service, established in 1987. The Authority operates its own police force, and since 1998 has been under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Environment. It was previously under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Construction.

History

Early on, admission to national parks in South Korea was free. In 1974, most of South Korea's national parks cancelled the free admission policy. Currently only Gyeongju National Park is free. In 1993, the ticket revenue of the Korean National Park accounted for 65% of the park's total revenue. With the increase in the number of tourists year by year, the Korean government has restricted the number of tourists and activities in order to effectively protect the natural environment of the park, and controlled the number of tourists through an appointment system. Picnic and camping for tourists can only be carried out in designated areas, and night climbing is strictly prohibited. In addition, South Korea has imposed a natural rest program on some areas of high conservation value in national parks to avoid man-made damage.

References

External links

Korea National Park Service
manager of 21 of the 22 national parks {{DEFAULTSORT:National parks of South Korea

South Korea geography-related lists

National parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...