South Korea's AI framework law never says robot, and its safety duty is triggered by compute

The document exists. The ledger fetched it at its publisher and quotes it.

Record ID

PAG-2026-0040

Kind

Binding law

Jurisdiction

South Korea

Last verified

16 September 2026

Added

16 September 2026

• Addenda Article 1: the Act enters into force one year after promulgation, with the digital medical device part of the high impact definition from 24 January 2026.
• The National Law Information Center shows the Act in force from 21 July 2026 as amended by Act No. 21311 of 20 January 2026.
• Article 32(1) attaches the safety duty to an AI system whose cumulative amount of computation for learning meets or exceeds a standard prescribed by Presidential Decree.
• High impact AI in Article 2 reaches major operation and management of means of transportation, traffic facilities and traffic systems, the nearest the Act comes to a machine that moves.
• Article 34 requires a high impact provider to assign human management and oversight and to keep documents that verify its safety measures; Article 31 requires advance notice that a product runs on high impact or generative AI.

The AI inside it, The machine, Workers and bystanders, The data it records. Stated means the document you can open below says it; silent means the ledger read the document and it does not.

The AI inside itStated

Duties follow the model and the operator, with the trigger being training compute and high impact use rather than a physical body.Korea Legislation Research Institute, English translation of the Framework Act on Artificial Intelligence, secondary source, 16 September 2026.

The machineSilent

Nothing in the Act addresses the physical safety of a machine, which stays with occupational and product law.Korea Legislation Research Institute, English translation of the Framework Act on Artificial Intelligence, secondary source, 16 September 2026.

Workers and bystandersStated

The high impact categories reach life, physical safety and fundamental rights, so a transport system qualifies while a factory robot is not named.Korea Legislation Research Institute, English translation of the Framework Act on Artificial Intelligence, secondary source, 16 September 2026.

The data it recordsStated

Article 34 asks a high impact provider for an overview of the learning data used; it does not say who owns what a robot records.Korea Legislation Research Institute, English translation of the Framework Act on Artificial Intelligence, secondary source, 16 September 2026.

If you ship robots into Korea, read this Act as a duty on whoever provides the model, keyed to compute and to high impact uses, and not as a robot rule. Check whether your model crosses the decree threshold and whether your deployment touches transport, because those two answers decide your exposure. Physical safety obligations sit elsewhere.

1. National Law Information Center, 인공지능 발전과 신뢰 기반 조성 등에 관한 기본법, in force textPrimary · 21 July 2026
2. Korea Legislation Research Institute, English translation of the Framework Act on Artificial IntelligenceSecondary · 16 September 2026

• VerifiedBinding lawPAG-2026-0039

  South Korea has had a robot statute since 2008, and its robot certification articles were deleted in 2016

  South Korea · verified 16 September 2026

  The National Law Information Center shows the Act in force from 1 October 2025 as Act No. 21065, amended through another statute.

• VerifiedBinding lawPAG-2026-0002

  The Digital Omnibus took AI enabled machinery out of the AI Act high risk lane and handed it to the Machinery Regulation

  European Union · verified 15 September 2026

  Omnibus Article 1 point 41: in Annex I, Section A, point 1 is deleted, and Section B gains point 21, Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery.

• VerifiedProgram or strategyPAG-2026-0041

  South Korea runs its humanoid push through a ministry led alliance, and the ministry names training data as a policy measure

  South Korea · verified 16 September 2026

  The release is dated 5 March 2026 and names Hyundai Motor Company, AeiROBOT, Robros, Yuil Robotics, Tesollo, Higen RNM, Seoul National University, KEIT and KETI as participants.