Can you flush toilet paper in Korea? Public restrooms in Seoul
In most public restrooms in Seoul, yes — flush the toilet paper. Older buildings and some small restaurants still ask you to put it in the bin. The public toilet you can count on is a subway station, and it is free. PooMap maps those toilets from where you are standing.
Can you flush toilet paper in Korea?
In a public restroom, yes. Subway stations, parks, department stores and most toilets renovated in recent years expect you to flush toilet paper. Around 2018 Korea began taking the general trash bin out of public stalls, so the old advice — never flush paper in Korea — is out of date for those places.
Use the bin when the stall says so. Older buildings, small restaurants and some market toilets still post a sign telling you to put paper in the trash, because the pipes are narrow. Follow that sign. Pocket tissues and wet wipes do not break down, so those go in the bin even when the toilet paper itself can be flushed.
If you would normally ask where the bathroom or the restroom is, look for the sign 화장실. That is the Korean word for toilet.
Where to find a public restroom in Seoul
The reliable public toilet in Seoul is the subway station. Almost every station has a restroom, and it is free. Read the signs before you pass the ticket gates: some station bathrooms are outside the gates, and some are inside.
Myeongdong, markets, parks, palaces and highway rest stops usually have a public restroom nearby. The entrance is often behind a building or down a flight of stairs, and the sign is often in Korean only. A convenience-store bathroom is the weak option — many shops do not have one for customers.
PooMap marks those public toilets on a map, closest first, then opens the walking route in your maps app. It covers Korea, not only Seoul. It is free and it does not ask you to register.
Public toilets in Korea are free
Public toilets do not charge, and there is no coin gate. A toilet inside a building, a park office or a market keeps that place's hours, so it will not always be open at night. Carry a small pack of tissues anyway. Many stalls are stocked, but not all of them, and every convenience store sells tissues.
What PooMap does
PooMap plots public toilet locations across South Korea on a map. Open the app and it centres on where you are, drops a pin on each nearby facility, and lists them in order of distance. Pick one and it hands off to your usual maps app for walking directions.
There is no account to create and no login screen. The app opens straight onto the map, which is the point — in the situation people actually use it, nobody wants to fill in a registration form. The core features are free.
Available on Google Play and the App Store. The app was previously published under the name PooPee and is now called PooMap.
Why visitors to Korea find it useful
South Korea has an unusually dense network of public toilets, and they are almost always free to use. Subway stations, parks, markets, riverside paths, highway rest areas and tourist sites nearly all have facilities maintained by the local district office.
The catch is that knowing they exist does not help you find one. Signage is often in Korean only, entrances can sit behind a building or down a flight of stairs, and generic map searches tend to surface businesses rather than public facilities. PooMap solves the narrow problem of turning "there is probably one nearby" into a pin and a walking route.
Main features
Map of toilets near you
Your GPS position anchors the map and every public toilet in range appears as a pin. Pan or zoom to scout a neighbourhood before you head there.
Sorted by distance
When there is no time to study a map, the list view puts the closest option at the top. One tap and you are done deciding.
Directions handoff
Choosing a destination opens route guidance in your maps app, so you can see how many minutes away it is on foot before setting off.
Facility details
Each entry shows the name, address and opening hours as published in the source data, which helps you judge whether it is likely to be open.
How to use it
- Install — download PooMap from Google Play or the App Store.
- Allow location access — the app needs your position to find what is nearby. Permission is used only while the app is open.
- Browse nearby toilets — tap a pin on the map, or choose from the distance-sorted list.
- Start directions — open the detail view and tap directions to route there in your maps app.
If you decline location permission, proximity search will not work. You can still drag the map to any area and browse the facilities there.
Where the data comes from
Locations come from public toilet datasets published as open data by Korean local governments. The data is refreshed periodically, but it describes the official record rather than live conditions on the ground, so occasional mismatches are expected.
- A facility closed for renovation may still appear on the map.
- Opening hours can change with the season or the day of the week.
- Toilets inside a building are only accessible during that building's opening hours.
If you find an entry that does not match reality, let us know through the contact page and we will look into it.
Also on this site
Alongside the app we run a free calculator that works in any browser, with no installation required.