General profile Digital profile

South Korea

Digital Snapshot – Key Policies and Laws

South Korea sits near the top of the global digital government rankings. In the UN’s 2024 E-Government Development Index (EGDI), it ranks 4th of 193 (EGDI 0.9679), and its Online Service Index is at the ceiling (1.000). The government’s service delivery model emphasises integrated portals and inter-agency operability. Government24, as described by MOIS, is an integrated civil service platform covering approximately 12,000 services, with about 1,300 available for application through cross-agency collaboration.

At the strategy level, the administration’s cross-cutting roadmap is the Digital Strategy of Korea, presented as a pan-government plan spanning digital capability-building, digital economy expansion, inclusion, and ‘platform government’ approaches. Connectivity policy remains a pillar of that posture: MSIT’s K-Network 2030 Strategy frames Korea’s push to remain a leader in next-generation networks, including pathways beyond 5G.

On AI governance, Korea has moved from ‘soft law’ ethics and sector guidance toward a comprehensive framework law. MSIT reports the National Assembly passed the AI Basic Act on 26 December 2024, with the law designed to take effect in January 2026. An early 2026 legal analysis describes the Act as taking effect, with detailed compliance expectations shaped via enforcement decrees and responsible authorities, positioning it as a relevant pillar for AI transparency/safety obligations and governance structures.

Korea’s AI Basic Act meets the chip‘n’cloud stack

South Korea’s AI Basic Act took effect on 26 January 2026, setting a country-wide framework for how AI is developed and used across the economy, with the most detailed requirements to be defined through enforcement decrees rather than left to voluntary guidance alone. It is often described as combining ‘promotion’ with ‘trust’: it points toward transparency duties, including expectations around identifying AI-generated outputs, and governance measures for higher-risk uses, such as responsibilities tied to ‘high-impact AI’ systems. Instead of regulating only one sector, the AI Basic Act aims to set baseline rules that can be applied consistently while still allowing specific regulators and ministries to translate them into concrete, technical obligations.

+ The ‘Stargate’ initiative =

The country’s AI governance and digital ambitions are underpinned by a semiconductor sector that is treated as strategic national infrastructure, not just an export industry. In late 2025, OpenAI announced partnerships with Samsung and SK under its ‘Stargate’ initiative, explicitly tying Korea’s strengths in semiconductors, data centers and infrastructure to the global build-out of AI capacity. In parallel, the government has promoted a long-horizon plan for a ‘semiconductor mega cluster’ with headline investment figures in the hundreds of trillions of won, an industrial policy signal that compute, chips, and energy-intensive infrastructure are being treated as strategic national assets. Together, these moves show Korea trying to do two things at once: set rules for trustworthy AI at home while remaining indispensable to the hardware and infrastructure that make AI possible globally.

For data governance, Korea combines an open-data mandate with strong privacy oversight. The Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data establishes the legal basis for public-sector data provision and reuse. Operationally, the Open Data Portal points to Article 21 as the basis for the national portal’s establishment, reflecting a centralised ‘one place to publish’ model for datasets and APIs.

On data protection, the centre of gravity is the PIPA (Personal Information Protection Act) under the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC). PIPC states that the amended PIPA and its Enforcement Decree entered into force on 15 September 2023, following a major overhaul passed in March 2023, a reform wave that also explicitly links to initiatives such as data portability (‘MyData’). The policy package is reinforced by active enforcement and frequent policy updates, making privacy a core constraint on digital government and AI deployment.

Korea’s current top-level document on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure resilience is the National Cybersecurity Strategy, published as an official strategy text. In cloud governance, a distinctive feature is the public-sector assurance gate: CSAP (Cloud Security Assurance Program), described by AWS and policy analysis as a Korean government-backed certification administered by KISA, which shapes which cloud services can serve public institutions and how. International connectivity and physical backbone resilience also matter: industry inventories and mapping resources identify Busan as a key submarine-cable landing hub for Korea.

South Korea’s permanent mission to the UN:

South Korea’s Permanent Mission in Geneva represents the Republic of Korea at UN Geneva (UNOG) and other Geneva-based international bodies, coordinating Korea’s participation across major multilateral tracks, including humanitarian and human rights-related work. The mission describes its engagement with Geneva’s humanitarian architecture (e.g. UNHCR, IOM, ICRC/IFRC, OCHA) and its role in advancing multilateral cooperation while contributing to Korea’s priorities across UN and international organisation agendas.

Official UNOG website: https://www.ungeneva.org/en/blue-book/missions/member-states/republic-korea

South Korea’s MOFA official website: https://geneva.mofa.go.kr/ch-geneva-en/index.do

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unkoreamissiongeneva/