I finally watched KPop Demon Hunters last night, in which the climax takes place in a (fictional, obviously) stadium atop Namsan Mountain. In the runup to that, the demon boy band lead singer Jinu announces to a crowd gathered on the street:
“Hey everybody — you must all be so sad about the Huntrix breakup. We are, too. So to cheer everyone up, we’re going to do a special live performance tonight: midnight, Namsan Tower. Don’t miss it for the world!”
It got me thinking: Is that, in fact, how most Koreans refer to it? That’s what I’ve always called it, even though:
• the official name used in branding is YTN Seoul Tower
• its original name when it was built was just Seoul Tower
• previous official branding seems to have been N Seoul Tower
All of these are still in use in various contexts. The Naver Maps listing, as well as the Korean Wikipedia article, use YTN Seoul Tower. English Wikipedia and Google Maps use N Seoul Tower. News media and social media references are all over the place.
Given what many consider to be KPDH’s faithful representation of Korean culture, it seems that calling it Namsan Tower in the movie was a very intentional choice.
So, how do you and the people you know refer to it in everyday conversation? Are Seoulites more inclined to use "Namsan Tower", but other Koreans or foreigners more likely to call it "Seoul Tower"? Has the common colloquial name for it changed much over time? When it's mentioned or appears in other movies, TV shows, literature etc., what is the name that's typically used?
Edit: formatting
https://i.redd.it/lafvxjhj1jog1.jpeg
Posted by rock_badger
23 Comments
Everyone just calls it Namsan tower.
If you called it any of the other names my most likely reaction would be, “do you mean Namsan Tower?”
The Sears Tower is no longer the Sears Tower. But it’s the Sears Tower.
There’s a whole song calling it the [Namsan Tower](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N8c1t1QTDI)
I mean namsan just means “South mountain” and there’s a lot of them around the country cuz it’s an auspicious direction. So technically calling it Seoul tower might be more accurate. But it’s a bit pedantic. Like saying “well there’s lots of statues in the likeness of lady liberty so technically it’s just “a” statue of Liberty”.
I’ve never heard it called anything other than Namsan Tower
**Namsan Tower (남산타워)** has been the *colloquial* name of this tower for Koreans from pretty much its inception because it’s a tower… on top of Namsan mountain. The moniker is still in popular use to this day, so the decision to use it in KPDH was appropriate. Howerver, it has never been the official name or branding.
You’re right that the original official name was indeed **Seoul Tower (서울타워)**. The *current* official name of the tower, sans branding, is **Namsan Seoul Tower (남산서울타워)**. It is listed as such on [Seoul’s official tourism guide](https://korean.visitseoul.net/attractions/%EB%82%A8%EC%82%B0%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%ED%83%80%EC%9B%8C%20_/36).
But since YTN owns the building / structure they’ve currently *branded* it as **YTN Seoul Tower (YTN 서울타워)**.
As for the **N Seoul Tower (N서울타워)** branding. It’s not a “previous” branding, but a current one for a [very specific section of the tower run by CJ Foodville](https://www.seoultower.co.kr/en/intro/brand). There’s a [website](https://www.nseoultower.co.kr/eng/index.asp) for the place separate from YTN’s own. But yes, this is confusing even to the residents.
donkasu temple
I either call it Seoul Tower or Namsan Tower. Or occasionally “The big thing”
I’d have nfc what a person was referring to if they called it anything but. (Not Korean but a very long-term resident of Seoul.)
Everyone calls it Namsan Tower.
Calling it YTN Seoul Tower is like calling the Statue of Liberty ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’.
Yes We Do!
TIL Namsan Tower is officially YTN Seoul Tower. Well, nobody calls it like that. It’s always Namsan Tower.
Kind of like when they built Jamsil Tower and then there was a short lag tie before the naming rights were purchased and it was marketed?
There were other names besides Namsan Tower?????
Namsan Tower. No question about it.
I didn’t even realise its official name wasn’t Namsan Tower until now
I completely forgot that YTN owns Namsan tower even though I see the damn thing almost every day.
Another one would be 63 Building!
Namsan tower is namsan tower
TIL Namsan tower has other names lol
Where is Namsan Tower?
When I was a child learning English and came across Seoul Tower in my textbooks, it was so strange that it gave me a funny feeling.