Korean National Police Museum

The patrol car and the changing uniform

Upstairs, the Police Museum preserves original uniforms and names of officers killed on duty. Downstairs, visitors report a simulated 112 emergency, lift fingerprints and investigate financial scams. Historical objects and practice exercises sit one floor apart

The museum opened on 14 October 2005 and moved to its current building in 2021. Its historical gallery occupies the fourth floor, while a third-floor series of activity stations introduces modern police work. The distinction matters. One floor handles what policing has been in Korea; the other asks how an officer responds when a particular problem is reported

The fourth floor begins with a 1950s white patrol car and a motorcycle sidecar used for patrols, accompanied by footage of changing police vehicles. Those objects show public policing as a visible street occupation before the visitor enters more complicated chronological material. Exhibition cases move from Joseon policing and the late monarchy through Japanese colonial rule and provisional-government activity, US military administration, the National Police Bureau and the later national agency

Changes in rank insignia, badges, headwear and uniforms make shifts in police organisation readable on individual bodies. An augmented-reality costume station lets visitors try historical uniforms digitally. The gallery's sequence includes accounts of officers associated with the independence movement and democratic and human-rights work, as well as historical policing institutions. It cannot substitute for a full history of the state's sometimes contested use of police power; the display is an institutional presentation rather than a neutral court record

An emergency call becomes an exercise

The move down from historical uniforms to the third-floor 112 station changes the question from what police wore and recorded to how an emergency report is handled. The 112 emergency response station follows a report from caller to dispatcher. A visitor can try reporting a situation and see how information reaches local police. The crime-scene section has equipment displays and interactive exercises for lifting fingerprints, making composite facial images and examining evidence with alternate light sources

A drone search simulator puts surveillance and scene coverage in a different setting; the cybercrime station uses electronic financial fraud as a problem to recognise. Traffic policing includes hand signals and road-sign quizzes. They are simplified learning exercises, but they introduce concrete duties beyond arresting offenders: accurate communication, evidence handling, accident prevention and warnings against payment scams

The simulated shooting station uses a .38 revolver format. It has scheduled sessions at 10:30, 11:30, 13:30, 14:30, 15:30 and 16:30, and restricts participation to visitors aged eleven or older—equivalent to fourth grade in the Korean elementary system—because of safety and instruction requirements. The presence of the exhibit does not mean every child can take part, or that walking in between sessions guarantees a turn

Children can also try police uniforms and sit in a patrol car or on a police motorcycle for a photograph. Those vehicle props are distinct from the actual 1950s historical car displayed on the floor above. The original car above and the photo props below can look similar in pictures, but they serve different purposes

Names rather than just uniforms

Near the end of the history gallery, the remembrance section allows visitors to search for individual officers killed in the line of duty and leave a memorial message. The adjacent historical figures display covers independence-era police, wartime service and democratic or human-rights work. A concrete object is the duty uniform of Choi Gyu-sik, killed while confronting armed North Korean infiltrators in 1968. Three bullet holes remain visible in the jacket; medals honouring him are displayed nearby

The museum's holdings have grown through donations, frequently from retired officers and their families. In one collection account, a son donated the belongings of his father, Hong Young-sik, who served in Seoul traffic duties, presidential security and a driving-test centre before retiring as a neighbourhood police-post chief in 1985. Such professional materials reach the museum through family memory, not only through government inventories. That route into the collection is a reminder that police history also resides in ordinary careers and preserved work records

Before you go

Admission is free, normally 09:30–17:30, with last entry at 17:00. It is closed on Mondays, or the following day when a holiday falls on Monday, and on January 1 and the Seollal and Chuseok holiday periods. Individuals and families can visit without booking; groups of fifteen or more need advance reservations. The interactive shooting station has its own age and scheduled-session rules even when the museum admits families freely

The museum is at 162 Songwol-gil, Jongno-gu, close to Dongnimmun and Yeongcheon Market. From Dongnimmun Station (Line 3), Exit 3, it is about six minutes on foot; Seodaemun Station (Line 5), Exit 3, is around fifteen minutes away. City buses stop at Yeongcheon Market, five minutes' walk from the museum. There is no dedicated museum parking; public parking at Yeongcheon Market is nearby and paid