Second memorial house opens at Ulsan Sky Park

600-square-meter ash-scattering site also under development

Ulsan cremation rate at 97.6%, highest in the nation

New facilities to meet growing funeral demand

An aerial rendering shows the Second Memorial House (left), built at Ulsan Sky Park in Samdong-myeon, Ulju-gun, and the ash-scattering site under development (right). Ulsan city invested 19.66 billion won in the project using national and municipal funds. [Provided by Ulsan city]
An aerial rendering shows the Second Memorial House (left), built at Ulsan Sky Park in Samdong-myeon, Ulju-gun, and the ash-scattering site under development (right). Ulsan city invested 19.66 billion won in the project using national and municipal funds. [Provided by Ulsan city]

Ulsan city has completed a new columbarium called the Second Memorial House at the public Ulsan Sky Park in Samdong-myeon, Ulju-gun, and will finish developing an ash-scattering site at the same park by the end of this month, the city said Wednesday. Both facilities are set to open in January.

Ulsan Sky Park opened in March 2013 on a 98,026-square-meter site, equipped with a crematorium, a columbarium known as the Memorial House, and natural burial grounds including a lawn burial area and a tree burial area. Thirteen years on, the original Memorial House has nearly reached capacity — as of late September, 24,576 of its 27,557 niches were occupied, leaving only 2,981 available.

According to cremation statistics by region published on the Ministry of Health and Welfare's e-Naneul funeral information system, Ulsan's cumulative cremation rate from January through August this year stood at 97.6%, based on 4,127 cremations out of 4,229 deaths. That figure is 2.5 percentage points above the national average of 95.1% and the highest among the country's 16 cities and provinces. Nearby Busan recorded 97.4% and South Gyeongsang Province 97.1%.

To address the high demand and near-full capacity, Ulsan city completed the Second Memorial House last month. Construction began in October 2024 at a total cost of 19.66 billion won ($14.7 million), drawn from national government funds of 5.49 billion won, a special local allocation tax grant of 1.8 billion won and municipal funds of 12.37 billion won. The four-story building has a total floor area of 5,217 square meters and holds 43,919 niches.

The first floor was designed for the convenience of bereaved families, with a memorial ceremony room, a family waiting room, a lounge and a nursing room. The second floor houses a dedicated columbarium for national merit recipients — those who sacrificed or contributed to the country.

Alongside this, the city has begun developing a 600-square-meter ash-scattering site in Zone 6 of the natural burial grounds at Ulsan Sky Park. Ash scattering is an eco-friendly funeral method in which cremated remains are spread at a designated location; the new site will accommodate 1,920 sets of remains.

Ulsan city had been preparing to introduce ash scattering at the park after the Funeral Services Act was amended in January 2024 to recognize the practice as a form of natural burial. The city commissioned the Ulsan Research Institute to study an Ulsan-specific ash-scattering plan, and as a result was selected in December last year for a Ministry of Health and Welfare national grant competition, securing total project funding of 218 million won — including 52 million won in national funds — before breaking ground on the site.

With ash scattering now legally recognized as a form of natural burial, facilities offering the practice nationwide remain limited, with Hongcheon-gun Memorial Park and Hoengseong-gun Public Memorial Park in Gangwon Province among the few operational sites.

A personal grave marker installed at the lawn burial area of Ulsan Sky Park. Each marker measures 9 centimeters wide, 6 centimeters deep and 13 centimeters tall, set at a 45-degree angle. [Captured from Ulsan Sky Park website]
A personal grave marker installed at the lawn burial area of Ulsan Sky Park. Each marker measures 9 centimeters wide, 6 centimeters deep and 13 centimeters tall, set at a 45-degree angle. [Captured from Ulsan Sky Park website]

Ulsan city has also moved to address a drawback of natural burial grounds — the absence of a fixed physical place where families can visit to remember the deceased. Starting Sept. 11, 2024, the city allowed personal grave markers to be installed in the lawn burial area. Under Ulsan Sky Park's operating rules, each marker is limited to 9 centimeters wide, 6 centimeters deep and 13 centimeters tall, set at a 45-degree angle.

The city expects the measure to boost the lawn burial area's utilization rate, which stood at just 17.4% as of late September — 10,029 of 57,770 available plots. The tree burial area, which opened in January 2017, has filled 857 of its 2,730 plots, or 31.4%.

"By adding roughly 44,000 columbarium niches and developing an ash-scattering site at Ulsan Sky Park — the city's public funeral facility — we are now better positioned to stably meet the growing demand for funeral services," said Lee Jeong-mi, director of Ulsan city's welfare and health bureau.


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