AED Finder

About AED Finder

This tool maps automated external defibrillators (AEDs) registered in South Korea. It uses the nationwide AED registry that Korea's National Medical Center publishes on the government open-data portal, so it only covers locations inside Korea. For travellers and residents, it shows each device's building, the exact spot inside (for example, next to the ground-floor information desk), opening hours by weekday, and the managing organization's phone number, sorted by distance from you.

In Korea, dial 119 for an ambulance or fire (police is 112). The 119 dispatcher can coach you through chest compressions and AED use over the phone. The best time to use this map is before anything happens: look up where the AEDs are around your hotel, office, or gym, and whether you could actually get to them at night.

How an AED is used (Korean Association of CPR guidance)

The sequence below follows what the Korean Association of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and the National Emergency Medical Center publish. Once switched on, the device speaks its own instructions. Devices in Korea normally speak Korean, so it helps to know the order ahead of time. This page is not a substitute for CPR training.

• Turn it on. Place the device where it will not get in the way of CPR and press the power button.
• Attach the pads. One goes below the right collarbone, the other on the left side below the nipple, in line with the middle of the armpit. Wipe away anything on the skin where the pads go and plug the pads into the unit if they are separate.
• Let it analyze. When it announces it is analyzing (in Korean: 분석 중, bunseok jung), stop compressions and take your hands off the person. If no shock is advised, restart CPR right away.
• Shock if told to. When it tells you to press the shock button, make sure nobody is touching the patient, then press the flashing button.
• Restart compressions immediately. The device re-analyzes every two minutes. Keep going until paramedics arrive or the person wakes up.

Where AEDs tend to be in Korea

Korea's Emergency Medical Service Act (Article 47-2) requires AEDs in public health facilities, ambulances, passenger aircraft and airports, passenger rail cars, ships of 20 gross tons or more, and apartment complexes with 500 or more households. The enforcement decree adds large railway and bus terminal waiting areas, port passenger facilities, workplaces with 300 or more employees, stadiums with 5,000 or more seats, correctional facilities and government buildings, among others.

In practice that means subway stations and big apartment complexes are good bets, even if nothing shows up right next to you. Apartment AEDs are often kept in the management office or guard post, which can be hard for outsiders to reach at night. Owners must inspect each device at least once a month and report it to the local government, and those reports are what feeds this map.

Why a dot on the map may not help you

Opening hours matter most. An AED inside a district office or school is behind a locked door after hours. The tool offers "available now" and "open 24 hours" filters based on the weekday hours in the registry. Devices with no hours recorded are dropped by the "available now" filter, because nobody knows whether they are open; with the filter off they stay in the list with hours shown as "Unknown".

The time check converts the current moment to Korea Standard Time (UTC+9), so "available now" stays correct even if your phone is still on your home time zone. Korean public holidays, including Seollal and Chuseok, use the registry's holiday hours.

Data source and freshness

The registry API only offers a full national download, with no search by area, so this site's server collects the roughly sixty thousand records by district and refreshes them every three months. New, moved or removed devices can lag behind. If a district has not been collected yet, the tool says so instead of showing an empty map.

Your GPS position is turned into a Korean city/district name through the Kakao map API, and only that district's list is loaded. Near a district boundary, a closer AED just across the line may not appear.

Worked examples

How to use it

1. Tap "My location" or search for an address or place name in Korea.
2. Turn on "available now" or "open 24 hours" if needed.
3. Tap a device to read the exact spot and hours, then open directions.

Frequently asked questions

Notes

This map does not replace calling emergency services or CPR training. In Korea, call 119 first.