Millions of people head to hometowns for Lunar New Year holiday

Millions of Koreans were on the move returning to their hometowns Saturday as the annual exodus for the four-day Lunar New Year holiday started.

The Lunar New Year season is one of two major holidays in South Korea that, together with the Korean Thanksgiving holiday, or Chuseok, traditionally sees families gather together in their hometowns to visit family graves.

About 31.54 million people were expected to visit their hometowns by car, bus, train or plane, according to the Korea Highway Corp.

Highway traffic was running relatively smoothly as of noon on Saturday, but was expected to become more congested later in the day, said officials at the state-run expressway operator.

As of 11:00 a.m., it took about three hours to travel from Seoul to Daejeon, some 150 kilometers south of the capital, and an average of six hours and 20 minutes from Seoul to Busan, officials said.

"Traffic jams are expected to reach their peak by midnight today," an official said.

Early on Saturday, President Lee Myung-bak and first lady Kim Yoon-ok visited a traditional market near the presidential house and shopped for beef, snacks and other items.

Lee is taking the four-day Lunar New Year break, during which he will draw up plans to boost the economy and the policy direction for the final year of his presidency, presidential officials said. (Yonhap)