Gov’t to Unify Its Certification Marks to KC

National certification marks attached on most industrial products such as electronic goods and communications devices will be unified into a single brand of KC, which stands for Korean Certification.

At the same time, some 20 measures to grant national certification will be integrated into nine ones as part of the government’s deregulation effort.

Accordingly, consumers will no longer be confused when they buy industrial products with incomprehensible national certification marks. Also, companies are likely to feel less pressured to get national certification to sell their products to consumers.

According to the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, the government has recently finished its project to unify national standard certification marks. After discussing the issue next week, relevant ministries will report to the president and start the revision process for the National Standards Act.

The overhaul of the national standard certification system is in line with the criticism that 10 government agencies have competitively increased the number of national standard certification marks and confused consumers with 13 kinds of certification marks in 39 sectors.

The government will introduce the KC mark in 33 sectors that can depend on a single mark, among the 39 sectors. From a long term perspective, it will unify discretionary certification marks, which are not compulsory like the KS mark.

If the unification process is finished, the K mark on electronic devices, the KPS mark on products including baby carriages and the MIC mark on telecom devices will be integrated into KC.

The government plans to nurture the KC mark to a level comparable to UL of the United States, CE of the European Union, CCC of China and JIS of Japan.

Also, regarding the 20 measures to grant national certification marks, some of which look similar or overlap, the government decided to reduce the number to nine.

cha@donga.com