The club was founded on 17 December 1982 as Yukong FC, becoming the second professional football club to be established in South Korea. The club's mascot was an elephant and the team became known as the Yukong Elephants. It was owned and financially supported by the
Sunkyoung Group's subsidiary,
Yukong (currently SK Group's "SK Energy"), along with
Seoul,
Incheon, and
Gyeonggi as its franchise. Yukong FC was a founding member of the
Korean Super League, South Korea's first professional football league and forerunner to the
K League. Yukong Elephants won the league championship on only one occasion, in
1989. When the Super League was established there was no home and away system, but following its implementation in 1987, Yukong FC was initially based within the
Seoul Metropolitan Area. From 1990, the club shared
Dongdaemun Stadium in Seoul with
Ilhwa Chunma and
LG Cheetahs. In 1992, the three clubs even allowed spectators to use their club memberships to watch each other's home matches. As part of the
K League's decentralization policy, in 1995 the Seoul government gave an eviction order to the three clubs based in Seoul (Yukong Elephants, LG Cheetahs and Ilhwa Chunma). However, they guaranteed that if clubs built a
football-specific stadium in Seoul, they could have a Seoul franchise and return to Seoul. On 3 November 2007, head coach
Jung Hae-seong announced his resignation after accepting the position of assistant coach for the
South Korea national team. The club stated that they intended to appoint a foreign manager as his replacement. In January 2008,
Artur Jorge was appointed as the new head coach. Artur's emphasis on passing play and entertaining football was well received by fans; however, the team finished 10th in the
2008 K League season and remained in the lower mid-table throughout the
2009 K League season. As a result, on 14 October 2009, he announced his resignation before the end of the season, and assistant coach
Cho Jin-ho took over as interim manager. He was replaced shortly afterwards by former
under-17 national team coach
Park Kyung-hoon. The club finished as runners-up in the
2010 season, allowing them to enter the
2011 AFC Champions League, where they were eliminated in the group stage. The club further qualified for the competition in its
2017 and
2018 editions, making it to the knockout stage in the former before being narrowly knocked out by eventual champions
Urawa Red Diamonds in a match where three Jeju players were controversially sent off. At the beginning of the 2019 season, the team struggled with poor performances. As a result, they parted ways with head coach
Jo Sung-hwan, who had led the team for nearly five years, and appointed
Choi Yun-kyum as his successor. During the mid-season, the club attempted to turn things around by signing new players such as
Yun Il-lok and
Choi Kyu-baek, while
Yoon Bit-garam returned to the team after completing his military service. However, despite these efforts, the team finished at the bottom of the league standings and was relegated to the second division for the first time since its establishment. The club received promotion back to the top flight the following year by finishing first in the
2020 K League 2 season. In 2025, the club rebranded as Jeju SK FC, reflecting a stronger commitment from the parent company SK Group.
Franchise relocation history == Stadiums and facilities ==