Traffic congestion on major highways in South Korea reached its peak Wednesday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, with the arrival of an increasing number of homebound drivers, highway officials said.
The Korea Expressway Corp. estimated that 208,000 passenger cars had already left the capital as of 1 p.m. and that some 370,000 additional cars would hit the road during the day.
At the current pace, it is taking about seven hours to drive from Seoul to Busan on the southern coast and around six hours to the southwestern cities of Mokpo and Gwangju, the officials said. Under normal circumstances, a drive from Seoul to Busan takes five hours, while the trip to Gwangju takes three and a half hours. The drive to Mokpo generally takes four hours.
The officials expected the traffic congestion would last until the evening.
The Lunar New Year holiday, which falls from Feb. 2-4 this year, is an important traditional holiday when millions of Koreans travel to their hometowns to see their families and pay respects to their ancestors.
This year's holiday is followed by the weekend and could last for nine days for those who took off the preceding Monday and Tuesday.