# AI rules in South Korea

Korea's AI Basic Act took effect on 22 Jan 2026 with high-impact AI, labelling and domestic-representative duties, but MSIT has deferred fines and investigations for at least a year.

- **Approach:** AI framework law
- **Key bodies:** Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), National AI Strategy Committee, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Personal Information Protection Commission
- **Last reviewed:** 4 Oct 2026

## Rules (3)
- [AI Basic Act](https://wheresthe.ai/rule/kr-ai-basic-act-2025/index.md): In force, Law, effective 22 Jan 2026. Horizontal AI law with promotion measures plus obligations for 'high-impact' AI (risk management, explanations, user protection, human oversight, documentation), generative AI notice and labelling (deepfakes must be clearly recognisable), safety duties for high-compute models (≥10^26 FLOPs per decree), and domestic-representative duties for large foreign AI firms. An amendment (Act No. 21311, 20 Jan 2026) renamed the national committee the National AI Strategy Committee and expanded support measures, some effective 21 Jul 2026.
- [AI Basic Act Enforcement Decree](https://wheresthe.ai/rule/kr-ai-basic-act-enforcement-decree-2026/index.md): In force, Regulation, effective 22 Jan 2026. Presidential Decree No. 36053 implementing the AI Basic Act: defines high-impact AI criteria, labelling methods (machine-readable watermarks allowed for general outputs; deepfakes need human-recognisable labels), the compute threshold for safety duties, and domestic-representative thresholds (prior-year revenue ≥ KRW 1 trillion, AI-service revenue ≥ KRW 10 billion, or ≥ 1 million average daily Korean users).
- [AI & Data-Based Administration Act](https://wheresthe.ai/rule/kr-ai-data-based-administration-act-2026/index.md): In force, Law, effective 28 Aug 2026. Amends and renames the Data-Based Administration Act to create a legal basis for AI use across Korean public bodies: defines AI-based administration, creates AI and data administration officers, a shared AI platform for public institutions, and duties on agencies to train staff, ensure training-data quality and keep inventories of AI services.

## Programmes and facts
- AI Basic Act fines capped at KRW 30 million; enforcement grace period of at least one year from 22 Jan 2026
- Domestic representative required for foreign AI firms with ≥ KRW 1 trillion revenue, ≥ KRW 10 billion AI-service revenue or ≥ 1 million average daily Korean users
- AI & Data-Based Administration Act for public-sector AI in force from 28 Aug 2026

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Canonical page: https://wheresthe.ai/j/kr/ · Not legal advice.