The early childhood education in Korea has made a great progress during the last thirty years. However, understanding the early childhood education is a challenging task because of the diversity of the fields. Currently 38% of 3-5 year old children are enrolled in kindergarten. And several efforts to develop and distribute the standard curricula on a national level were underwent successfully. Researches are rapidly expanding in volume and the topics are becoming diverse. Focuses of researches moved from the area of cognitive development, science and mathematics in 80s, social and emotional aspects in 90s to language, curriculum and teacher education in 2000s. One of the emerging issues is the inclusion of kindergarten to public education system and free kindergarten education for young children. The second issues is more interdisciplinary policies are in need related to the low-birth rate in nation. The third one is about teacher training policy. The fourth one is related to the health, nutrition and safety of young children. And the fifth issue is moving educational system and policies that provide better future of young children while focusing on the children in low income families and children with absolute poverty.