A highway into Seoul is busy with vehicles, Jan. 29. Yonhap

Traffic on major highways built up nationwide Thursday, as millions of Koreans returned home on the final day of the extended six-day Lunar New Year holiday.

On some sections of the Gyeongbu Expressway, which links Seoul to the southeastern city of Busan through major cities, cars were often at a standstill as of Thursday morning due to heavy traffic.

According to the state-run Korea Expressway Corp., a drive from the southeastern port city of Busan to Seoul, 320 kilometers apart, was expected to take about seven hours and 40 minutes as of 9 a.m.

From Gwangju, 267 km south of the capital, the drive was expected to take five hours.

The ccorporation said traffic toward Seoul was expected to ease around 3-4 a.m. the next day.

From Seoul to Busan, the drive was to take seven hours and 10 minutes. It would take five hours and 10 minutes from the capital city to Gwangju.

Traffic congestion on outbound routes from Seoul is expected to ease between 11 p.m. and midnight, according to the company.

An estimated 5.25 million cars were projected to travel on highways nationwide in both directions to and from the broader capital region in the day, the agency said. (Yonhap)