National Route 7 () is a national highway in South Korea. It connects Busan with Goseong in Gangwon Province. Before the division of the Korean Peninsula, the highway ran until Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, in present-day North Korea.
This highway will be one of the Asia Highway Route 6 until all segments of Donghae Expressway opens to traffic. Its name in Pohang~Goseong is Donghae-daero (Korean: ëÂÂôëÂÂë¡Â).
National Route 7 is a major highway running along the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, with its origins tracing back to the Japanese colonial period. In the 1930s, Japan developed a transportation route from Busan to Wonsan to facilitate resource extraction and military control in the East Coast region. This laid the foundation for what would later become National Route 7.
After 1945 Liberation and the Korean War of 1953, the division of the peninsula into North and South meant that National Route 7 could no longer extend to its original terminus in Wonsan. Consequently, the road remained only within South Korea, with its endpoint shortened to Hyeonnae-myeon, Goseong County, Gangwon-do, near the Military Demarcation Line.
From the 1960s onward, as the South Korean government implemented its Five-Year Economic Development Plans, National Route 7 underwent repeated expansion and paving projects. Serving as a transportation corridor connecting major East Coast industrial cities and ports such as Busan, Ulsan, Pohang, Donghae, and Samcheok, the road became an important infrastructure foundation for national industrial development.
Since the 1990s, in order to distribute traffic and improve logistics efficiency, the Donghae Expressway was constructed parallel to National Route 7. During this process, some sections were downgraded from a National highway to a National-supported local highway, while other parts were reorganized as part of the broader transportation network through connections with expressways and other arterial roads.
Today, National Route 7 runs from Busan through Ulsan, Pohang, Yeongdeok, Donghae, Gangneung, and Sokcho to Goseong. It functions as a key transportation route linking ports, industrial zones, and tourist areas along the East Coast, and is also regarded as a strategically important road near the Military Demarcation Line. In the event of future reunification, National Route 7 has the potential to extend again to Wonsan, serving as a central artery in the Northeast Asian transportation network.
In de jure, the highway passes through South & North Hamgyong Province, which are de facto controlled by North Korea. By this highway, it throughs Hwasong concentration camp.
IS: Intersection, IC: Interchange