The government will overhaul the Korea Industrial Standards (KS) certification system, which has been in place for more than 60 years since its introduction in 1961. Design and development corporations using an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) model without their own factories will also be able to obtain certification, and the certification validity period will be extended from 3 years to 4 years.
On the 4th morning, the government announced a "KS certification system reform plan" at an economic ministers' meeting. The KS certification system refers to a system that grants certification to "factories" capable of stably and continuously producing products that meet or exceed the level of industrial standards under the Industrial Standardization Act.
The biggest change is diversification of the screening method. Previously, "product screening + factory screening" was applied uniformly to all items, but going forward, a new method will be introduced that allows certification based on product screening alone. The eligibility will be expanded so that design corporations that adopt the OEM production model, such as wearable robots and indoor guide robots, can also obtain certification.
Corporations such as Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics have not been able to obtain KS certification in the advanced robot design institutional sector because they do not own factories, but going forward they will be able to obtain certification.
The government will also establish a single product-screening method with a 4-year validity period for fast-changing products such as artificial intelligence (AI) convergence products. In this case, once the initial screening is completed, the certification will be maintained without periodic screening.
To ease the burden on corporations, the certification validity period will also be extended from 3 years to 4 years. Since each certification cycle incurs an average screening cost of 6.6 million won and a regular training fee of 1.08 million won, corporations' tangible burden is expected to decrease.
Crackdowns on illegal and substandard products will also be strengthened. The government's on-site inspection authority, previously limited to certified corporations, will be expanded to non-certified corporations. This is to preemptively block the misuse of certification, such as distributing Chinese products with counterfeit KS marks attached.
A new basis will be established to revoke certification for companies that intentionally produce products that do not meet KS standards. In cooperation with the Korea Customs Service, intensive crackdowns will be conducted at the customs clearance stage on items such as steel products and stainless flanges, which carry a high risk of country-of-origin changes due to roundabout exports. The government also plans to operate a dedicated organization that will specialize in managing substandard KS-certified products.
A government official said, "We plan to submit a bill to amend the Industrial Standardization Act containing this reform plan to the National Assembly in the first half of this year."