Severe structural damage from a February fire has pushed the projected reopening of the National Hangeul Museum to 2028, the museum announced Tuesday following a safety inspection.
The museum, which opened in 2014 and closed temporarily in October 2024 for expansion work, had been set to reopen on Hangeul Day, Oct. 9.
“Based on the inspection results, the museum plans to begin design work this October and start construction in July 2026. The museum will reopen in October 2028,” the museum said.
The detailed safety inspection found that part of the ceiling of Hangeul Playground on the third floor required structural reinforcement, including replacement of steel beams, while some other parts of the museum needed surface treatment of beams and slabs, according to the museum.
The fire was sparked by welding work on the third-floor staircase, which then spread across the entire third-floor ceiling.
The construction is estimated to cost 17.5 billion won ($12.6 million), with 4 billion won already allocated in the 2026 budget. The construction will include fire damage restoration as well as the ongoing expansion project of the first-floor educational space and fourth-floor offices.
The fire, which took seven hours to extinguish, did not damage any artifacts — the museum had announced at the time — as the museum’s holdings were locked in the storage facility on the first floor.
The storage facility, however, is said to have sustained some water damage from fire extinguishing efforts. A leak led to flooding that affected 102 square meters of the ceiling and 30 square meters of the floor, roughly one-fifth of the storage area, the museum's director Kang Jeong-won told the press Tuesday while sharing updates on the construction.
Following the fire, the 26 museum artifacts were urgently transferred to the National Museum of Korea, located next door. To prevent further damage to its holdings, the museum later relocated some 25,000 items to the National Folk Museum of Korea and the National Museum of World Writing Systems.
yunapark@heraldcorp.com
