Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)

Its AI responsibilities

The competent authority under the AI Framework Act. Powers include: investigating suspected violations and conducting on-site inspections (Art. 40), issuing corrective orders and service suspension orders, confirming on request whether a system is 'high-impact AI', and drafting the Presidential Decree and notices. Also owns national AI R&D, compute and the AI Safety Institute.

Honest assessment

Formally open to anyone including foreign companies and individuals — Korea does not restrict pre-announcement comments by nationality, and international law firms routinely file on behalf of clients. But it is Korean-language end to end and the portal's submission function generally expects Korean identity verification. The honest assessment: usable by a Korean speaker or through Korean counsel; not usable unaided by a non-speaker. The 10^26 FLOP threshold and the high-impact criteria were both meaningfully shaped by comments in the 2025 window, so this route does have demonstrated influence.

Current business

Implementing the AI Framework Act, in force 22 January 2026. Released the draft regulatory package for public comment on 8 September 2025: Enforcement Decree, Safety Assurance Notice (using a 10^26 FLOP training-compute threshold plus risk criteria), Business Responsibilities Notice for high-impact AI operators, AI Safety Guidelines, and the High-Impact AI Determination Guideline. MSIT has indicated a one-year grace period before administrative fines are imposed — i.e. to roughly January 2027. The minister's elevation to Deputy Prime Minister rank is itself significant: AI policy now sits at DPM level.

Public route

Ministry rule-making goes through 입법예고 / 행정예고 (legislative and administrative pre-announcement) posted on the Government Legislation Centre's citizen participation portal, 국민참여입법센터. Anyone may submit an opinion online against a specific posted draft. MSIT also runs 공청회 (public hearings) and 간담회 (roundtables) on major AI notices, generally invitation-based.

Format rules

No threshold. Statutory pre-announcement periods: normally 40 days for 입법예고 of decrees, 20 days for 행정예고 of notices — shorter in urgent cases, which MSIT has used.

Languages

Korean only. 국민참여입법센터 has no English interface and drafts are published only in Korean.

Research note

Minister VERIFIED same-day (22 September 2026) from Korean press coverage of him speaking as 부총리 겸 과학기술정보통신부 장관. Act effective date (22 Jan 2026), the September 2025 regulatory package contents, the 10^26 FLOP threshold and the one-year fine grace period VERIFIED from Baker Botts and Cooley analyses. I could not verify whether the enforcement decree has since been finalised in its consulted form — treat the final text as UNVERIFIED.