When and Where Can You Watch Munmu?

Munmu premieres on KBS2 on Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 9:20 p.m. KST. Episode 2 follows the next night, and from then on the series airs every Saturday and Sunday at 9:20 p.m. for 28 episodes. That is 8:20 p.m. in Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore and 9:20 p.m. in Tokyo.

It is KBS's first daeha drama, the broadcaster's name for its large-scale historical epics, in about three years, following Korea–Khitan War in 2023 and 2024. The production budget is reported at around 30 billion won, and large battle scenes were shot on location in Mongolia. Kim Young-jo, whose earlier work includes the historical dramas Jang Yeong-sil and The Jingbirok, directs, and Kim Ri-heon and Hong Jin-yi wrote the scripts.

Netflix has a title page for Sword & Silence, and in Korea the first episode is set to appear there at 11:10 p.m. KST on November 14, shortly after the broadcast ends. Netflix and KBS have not published a list of the other countries that will carry it, so the quickest check is to search Sword & Silence in the Netflix app where you live. If you are in Korea on a weekend night, the KBS2 broadcast has no English subtitles.

Before the premiere, KBS aired a two-part Munmu Special on November 7 and 8 with cast interviews and a primer on the seventh-century map. The first teaser is the fastest way to get a feel for the scale: snowfields, desert cavalry charges and a throne hall full of bowing officials.

Who Was King Munmu?

King Munmu was the 30th ruler of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of ancient Korea, and reigned from 661 to 681. His birth name was Kim Beop-min. He was the eldest son of Kim Chun-chu, who became King Taejong Muyeol, and of Lady Munhui, the younger sister of the general Kim Yu-sin. That family tie matters in the drama: Kim Yu-sin is Beop-min's uncle as well as his commander.

In the seventh century the peninsula was split among Goguryeo in the north, Baekje in the southwest and Silla in the southeast, with Tang China pressing in from the west. Silla allied with Tang and defeated Baekje in 660, a year before Beop-min took the throne. Goguryeo fell to the allied armies in 668. When Tang then tried to hold the former territories itself, Silla turned and fought its former ally from 670 to 676, winning key battles at Maeso Fortress and Gibeolpo. Historians date the unification of the Three Kingdoms under Silla to that victory, and King Munmu is the king who completed it.

His name joins two characters: mun for letters and learning, and mu for arms. The drama takes that pairing as its theme, a story about leaders who win as much with diplomacy and strategy as on the battlefield. The real Munmu also began Gameunsa, a temple near the coast of Gyeongju meant to protect the kingdom. His son, King Sinmun, finished it in 682, and its two stone pagodas still stand.

Silla's Side: Who Plays Whom?

Lee Hyun-wook leads the series as Kim Beop-min, following him from a prince who goes to war to protect the people he loves to the king who ends it. Character teasers show him in silver scale armor at the head of Silla's soldiers, with the line that he will never step back.

Kim Kang-woo plays Kim Chun-chu, Beop-min's father and the diplomat-king who built the Tang alliance. Park Sung-woong plays Kim Yu-sin, Silla's most famous general. Jung Woong-in joins as the Silla noble Kim Jin-ju, Bae Jung-hwa plays Kim Munhui, later Queen Munmyeong, and Kim Do-hyun plays Seol O-yu, a Silla commander.

One story the drama dramatizes is real: in 642, after Baekje took Silla's Daeya Fortress, where Chun-chu's daughter died, he traveled to Goguryeo to ask for help. The talks failed, and the episode helped push Silla toward Tang.

Goguryeo, Baekje and Tang: The Other Side of the War

Jang Hyuk plays Yeon Gaesomun, the general who seized control of Goguryeo in a coup in 642 and ruled as its most powerful figure until his death in the 660s. His character teaser presents him as Goguryeo's iron-willed strongman, and his rivalry with Kim Chun-chu is one of the drama's central threads. The series also stages the Battle of Mount Jupil in 645, part of Tang's campaign against Goguryeo.

Jo Sung-ha makes a special appearance as Go Geon-mu, King Yeongnyu of Goguryeo, and Baek Sung-hyun plays Go Yeon-mu, the Goguryeo general who later joined Silla's Seol O-yu in a joint campaign across the Amnok River in 670. On the Baekje side, Go Young-bin plays King Uija. Yang Hyun-min plays Emperor Taizong of Tang, and Choi Ye-bin plays Wu Zetian, the future empress.

You don't need to know any of this before episode 1. The drama introduces each court as it goes, and KBS's own character guides on its YouTube channel are short and clear. It helps, though, to keep one thing in mind: almost everyone on screen is a real historical figure, so the ending of the war is no secret. The suspense is in how they get there.

Where Is King Munmu's Underwater Tomb?

King Munmu's tomb is in the sea. According to the twelfth-century history Samguk Sagi, he asked to be cremated and laid to rest in the East Sea so that he could become a dragon and guard the kingdom. The site traditionally identified as his tomb is Daewangam, a cluster of rocks about 200 meters off Bonggil Beach in Gyeongju. Its official name is Gyeongju Munmu Daewangneung, and the township on that stretch of coast is now called Munmudaewang-myeon after him.

You can't go out to the rock, but you can see it clearly from the beach, and the waves breaking around it are the point. A short drive inland, the Gameunsa temple site and its pagodas sit on a quiet field, and Igyeondae, a pavilion on a hill above the shore, was built as a place to look out toward the tomb. Bonggil Beach is roughly 40 minutes to an hour from central Gyeongju by car or bus.

Gyeongju itself is a little over two hours from Seoul on the KTX to Singyeongju Station; our guide to booking the KTX covers the steps. Pair the coast with the tombs, palaces and museum in town using our Gyeongju guide to Silla heritage, and if you like visiting places you've seen on screen, our list of K-drama filming locations has more ideas.