Korea Market-Entry Compliance
Munteok tells foreign game, AI, and digital-asset companies exactly which Korean regulations apply to them — before regulators do.
Privacy · 2026-09New Bill Would Add Fines for Destroying Evidence in Korean Privacy Investigations
Game · 2026-09Pending Bill Would Require Korean Game Operators to Preserve User Data When a Service Shuts Down
Game · 2026-09Game Industry Act Amendment Advances: Domestic-Agent Rule Would Favor Your Own Korean Subsidiary
Game · 2026-09Pending Bill Would Require Game Companies to Adopt Internal Controls Against Item and Data Leaks
Game · 2026-09Bill Would Toughen Penalties for Illegal Game Private Servers — Now at Committee Review
Privacy · 2026-09Korea Revises How Privacy Fines Are Calculated — In Force 11 September 2026
Game · 2026-09MCST Notice: Corrective-Order Prior Notice for Probability-Item Disclosure Violation Served by Public Notification
Privacy · 2026-09Korea's PIPA Enforcement Decree Amended: 72-Hour Breach-Possibility Notice and Higher Fines, Effective 11 September 2026
Privacy · 2026-09Bill Would Make Breach-Information Sharing Mandatory for Companies with a Registered CISO
Privacy · 2026-09Korea Bill Would Require Log Retention and Server Preservation After Data Breaches (Network Act Amendment)
AI · 2026-09Pending Bill Would Let Korea Designate "High-Risk" AI Models on National-Security Grounds
Privacy · 2026-09PIPA Amendment Would Let Companies Reuse Existing Personal Data for AI Development — Subject to PIPC Review
Games, AI, and personal data are governed by local-representation duties — designate someone in Korea, and the regulator can reach you. Digital assets are governed differently: registration and notification, across three separate authorities, with no representation route. Different thresholds, different regulators, different dates.
| Local-representation duties | |
| Game Industry Act | avg. 1,000 downloads/day · enforced since Oct 2025 |
| AI Framework Act | ₩10B AI revenue · in force since Jan 2026 |
| Personal Information Protection Act | 1M daily users or ₩1T revenue |
| E-Commerce & Network Acts | separate triggers |
| Registration & notification duties | |
| Financial Transaction Reports Act | VASP notification to the KoFIU · new grounds for refusal from Aug 2026 |
| Virtual Asset User Protection Act | effects in Korea · no size threshold |
| Foreign Exchange Transactions Act | cross-border virtual-asset transfer · effective 3 Dec 2026 |
20 Aug 2026
Amended Financial Transaction Reports Act: new grounds for refusing a VASP notification take effect, including the organization, staffing, and systems a filer has in place.
3 Dec 2026
Foreign Exchange Transactions Act: moving virtual-asset value across Korea's border becomes a registered business with the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE).
Implementing rules for the December regime are not final. We track them.
The confusion is the point — and it's exactly what the Scan untangles.
In late 2025, Korea's culture ministry issued corrective orders to two foreign game companies over loot-box disclosure violations. It couldn't even serve the documents — neither company had a Korean address on file. Their names went up on a public notice board instead.
Weekly, we monitor these enforcement notices, ratings filings, and pending amendment bills. That data goes into every Scan.
A 12–18 page report, delivered in 5 business days:
A Scan is a snapshot as of its issue date. After that, the Monitor tracks rules, thresholds, and enforcement as they move.
Munteok provides regulatory information and threshold analysis, and acts as a designated domestic agent where a client appoints us under Article 31-2 of the Game Industry Act. A domestic agent is a statutory contact and compliance role, not legal representation. We do not provide legal advice or legal opinions, and we do not represent you in disputes. Where a filing or a legal opinion is needed, partnered licensed Korean professionals take over. Where a regime turns on a filing, we map the requirements that apply and the evidence each one calls for; we do not assess whether your organization meets them, and nothing we produce predicts a regulator's decision.
Korea's Game Industry Act requires a foreign game company above certain thresholds to appoint a domestic agent: someone in Korea who receives the regulator's requests and carries out the reporting and labelling duties on the company's behalf. We take that appointment.
The engagement has three parts: a one-time appointment setup, an annual retainer that covers standing availability and first-line receipt of user complaints, and per-incident work billed hourly when a reporting request or a labelling review actually lands.
Whether the duty reaches you at all is a threshold question. Run the Scan first if you are not sure.
Setup from USD 1,000. Annual retainer from USD 1,500. Per-incident work billed hourly. Final pricing depends on which threshold applies and how many titles are covered.
$980 $490 launch pricing
One-time. Card payment. Delivered in 5 business days.
# Munteok — Pricing (plain text, for AI & agents) | Plan ID | Product | Price | Delivery | Includes | |---|---|---|---|---| | scan_standard | Korea Market-Entry Compliance Scan | USD 490 (list USD 980, launch pricing) | 5 business days, written report (PDF) | Regime applicability matrix (game / AI / privacy / e-commerce / digital-asset), representation and registration obligation map, enforcement reality, 90-day action plan | | agent_appointment | Korea Domestic Agent Appointment (Game Industry Act §31-2) | Setup from USD 1,000 + annual retainer from USD 1,500 | Appointment within 10 business days | Written designation, terms-of-service clause wording, regulator contact channel, first-line user complaint receipt, statutory reporting and labelling duties | Final pricing depends on applicable threshold and title count. Not legal advice. Payment: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WLD2K4QVMAZRJ Intake: reply to youngji.kim@munteok.com or contact@munteok.com Regulatory information, not legal advice. Machine-readable schema: https://munteok.com/ (JSON-LD Service/Offer in page head)
2026-09-10 · 3 min
On 10 September 2026 Korea's culture ministry published another pre-notice of a corrective order over probabilistic-item disclosure, served by public notice because the foreign publisher had no Korean address. It is the seventh such notice since December 2025, and the series now has a cadence.
2026-08-18 · 4 min
An amendment in force on 20 August 2026 adds new grounds for refusing a virtual-asset service provider filing — foreign convictions now disqualify, major shareholders enter the review, and compliance readiness itself becomes a gate. It is the first of two dates: a separate cross-border registration regime follows on 3 December.
2026-07-31 · 3 min
An amendment to the AI Framework Act and its enforcement decree took effect on 21 July 2026. The changes are domestic-access policy — AI-vulnerable groups, usage-cost support, research institutes. The domestic-agent duty and its thresholds are untouched, and the cadence is the real signal.
2026-07-17 · 4 min
Today, Korea's game-sector domestic agent can be any party with a Korean address — no professional licence, and one agent may act for several foreign publishers. A pending amendment would change that for companies that already have a Korean subsidiary.
2026-07-14 · 3 min
The Game Industry Act's domestic-agent duty attaches at KRW 1 trillion in revenue or 1,000 average daily Korean downloads. For a localized title on the Korean charts, the practical answer is usually yes — and the closing of the first identification sweep does not change that.
2026-07-14 · 4 min
Since March 2024 the odds for paid probabilistic items must be displayed inside the game and in its advertising, in a prescribed form. The public enforcement record shows exactly which gaps get written up.
2026-07-14 · 3 min
A passed filing date does not close a corrective order; the matter stays open on the record. The orderly response is a short sequence — read the order as posted, designate an agent, bring the disclosure into line, file the result late.
2026-07-14 · 3 min
Korea's first identification sweep closed on 10 July 2026 with 80 of 81 obligated companies designated, 14 confirmed exempt, and 24 voluntary designations. The list is settled; the process is not — and the next wave has a predictable profile.
2026-07-14 · 3 min
An agent located in Korea, with a Korean address, authorized to receive official notices and answer the regulator — designated in writing, by administrative filing. What it changes is the channel: a posting on a public board becomes a letter to a named contact.
2026-07-12 · 4 min
Korea's newest local-representative regime took effect in January 2026 with a KRW 10 billion AI-service-revenue trigger that reaches well beyond the largest platforms. Here is what to check first.
2026-07-08 · 3 min
When a regulator serves a corrective order by public notice because there is no Korean address to send it to, that is not weak enforcement. It is enforcement a foreign company cannot answer.
2026-07-05 · 3 min
One country now runs at least five separate domestic-representative regimes, each with its own regulator, threshold, and effective date. Sorting out which ones apply is the first compliance task, not the last.
Founder
JD with fourteen years in Korean regulatory affairs.
Research
Government-commissioned research track record with Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC).
Enforcement
Every public-notice enforcement action against foreign publishers since December 2025 — tracked in our Monitor feed.
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST)
Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC)
Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC)
Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)
Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU)
Financial Services Commission (FSC)
Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE)
Built by Youngji Kim — JD, 14 years in Korean regulatory affairs: game-rating filings, cross-border IP licensing, and government-commissioned research on game regulation. Based in Seoul.
LinkedIn →No. Munteok provides regulatory information — a map of which rules apply and what they require. When filings or legal opinions are needed, we hand off to partnered licensed Korean professionals and coordinate the work.
It's the best time. Most thresholds look at your previous-year numbers — knowing the lines before you cross them is the whole point.
Yes. Alongside the game, AI, and privacy regimes, the Scan covers the financial family — VASP notification to the KoFIU, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act's effects-based rule, and the cross-border virtual-asset transfer registration that takes effect 3 December 2026. Those regimes use registration and notification rather than representation, so the Scan maps which requirements apply and what evidence each one calls for, not whether you meet them.
You get an intake form (about 15 questions, 10 minutes). Your report arrives within 5 business days. One clarification round is included.
Full refund. No questions.