South Korea

• 2026-10-07 to 2026-10-10: no confirmed new decree or MSIT notice (search-limited).
• Unverified: a single-source report that the National Assembly plenary passed three "AI and data innovation" laws on 2026-10-01 (promulgation and effective dates unknown), and commentary that a government reform study group is drafting AI Basic Act amendments for the fourth quarter.
• 2026-10-08: a law-firm and university seminar on the AI Basic Act was reported; it produced no new rule.

What to watch: any amendment to the Act, the end of the enforcement grace period (earliest 2027-01-22), and the PIPA exception taking effect on 2027-03-09.

The central instrument is the Framework Act on the Development of AI and Establishment of Trust (the AI Basic Act), together with its enforcement decree.

• AI Basic Act (in force 2026-01-22). Imposes advance notice and output labelling for high-impact and generative AI, a domestic representative for large foreign providers, and duties for high-impact AI.
• Enforcement decree. Amended successively: Presidential Decree 36053 (effective 2026-01-22), 36506 (effective 2026-07-21; vulnerable groups, procurement priority, research institutes; final text not read) and 36580 (consequential amendment, effective 2026-08-20).
• PIPA amendment (Act No. 21910, promulgated 2026-09-08). New Article 28-12 allows reuse of lawfully collected personal data for AI development under conditions; effective 2027-03-09.

The AI Basic Act has extraterritorial reach. It covers high-impact AI and generative AI (advance notice and output labelling), requires a domestic representative from large foreign providers, and sets high-impact AI duties.

The frontier-model safety duty applies only where all three conditions are met: training compute of at least 10^26 floating-point operations, cutting-edge technology, and potential broad or significant impact on life, safety or rights. Compute alone does not trigger it.

MSIT has committed, as a matter of policy and not statute, not to conduct fact-finding or impose fines for at least one year from 2026-01-22. That grace period therefore runs to at least 2027-01-22 and could be shortened or extended by policy.

• Fines. A verifier reading the decree annex found direct fines listed at a maximum of KRW 30 million. The Act's own statutory ceiling was not independently read, so fine structure should be treated as unconfirmed.
• Sources. Statute and decree article text was not retrieved from law.go.kr (metadata only), and several figures rest on secondary Korean commentary. Overall confidence is medium.

Research assistance, not legal advice; verify before reliance.