The nation's highways are congested on Sunday, the final day of the four-day Chuseok holiday, as South Koreans are heading back to Seoul from their hometowns.

As of noon, traffic was heavy on major highways on the northbound lanes with vehicles running at less than ten kilometers per hour at some locations.

North-bound congestion is expected to be the most severe between 3 and 5 p.m. Sunday before returning to normal conditions at around 11 p.m.

The Korea Expressway Corporation said that as of 1 p.m., it is taking about five hours and 30 minutes to get from the southern port city of Busan to Seoul, four hours and 30 minutes from Gwangju to the nation's capital, four hours and 40 minutes from Daegu and nearly three hours from Daejeon.

The corporation forecasts nearly four million cars to hit nationwide expressways on Sunday alone.