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South Korea Revises the Persistent Organic Pollutants Control Act

Imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of 30 million won will be applied for failing to suspend use of facilities that discharge POPs exceeding the emission limit.

On June 10, 2022, South Korea’s Ministry of Environment (MoE) issued an announcement to make public the revision to the Persistent Organic Pollutants Control Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) to further clarify the control conditions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and strengthen the penalties against violations. The revision will come into effect on June 11, 2023.

The POPs are a set of toxic chemicals that are persistent in the environment and able to last for several years before breaking down. The Act was first released in 2009 and took effect in 2010, aiming to protect human health and the environment from hazards posed by POPs within South Korea. As of 2022, it has been revised many times to keep pace with the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Compared with the last revision (released in 2018), the major amendments are summarized as below.

Main points

  • Adding Article 2 Paragraph 1 to specify that POPs refer to chemical substances with properties, e.g., toxicity, persistence, low biodegradation and long-range transport, etc., as well as significant negative effects on human health and the environment.

  • Adding Article 13 Paragraph 6 to clarify that POPs regulated under the Act shall be designated by the MoE based on the Stockholm Convention and the Minamata Convention.

  • Updating Article 9 to specify that safety standards (without any influence on human health) shall be formulated to set the limits of human exposure to POPs through respiration, skin contact, ingestion, etc., and shall be issued via the President Decree.

  • Updating Article 16 and Article 33 Paragraph 2 to further specify the penalties, e.g., relevant operators failing to suspend use of facilities that discharge POPs exceeding the emission limit will be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or by a fine of 30 million won.

For more details, please refer to the Revised Act (in Korean).

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