South Korea has been a leader in technology innovation for more than two decades, particularly in the areas of telecommunications, consumer electronics, and automobiles. Over that period, the country’s participation in international technology standardization processes has grown. Many Korean organizations and corporate leaders joined and now actively participate in the International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Considering Korea’s importance in global digital development, the country’s private sector should consider ways to increase its impact on technology standard-setting processes. This chapter uses case studies to examine the two primary ways by which Korean companies engage in setting international technology standards: 1) by industry and corporate leaders taking on positions of influence and 2) by participating in standard-setting workshops and seminars with other stakeholders. Both of these approaches allow private corporate actors to represent their industries and their companies’ interests as well as communicate the latest trends related to technology development and the market.
Technology Standard Setting and South Korea
Technology Standard Setting
International standard-setting processes involve a number of stakeholders, including national governments, international organizations, private sector organizations, development aid agencies, and consumers. The ISO, composed of 167 national standards bodies, is the leading international standards organization.1 Its General Assembly has the authority to enact standards based on reports written by the ISO Council.
There are a number of different types of standards, including those related to categorization, infrastructural development and maintenance, and innovation. Standards also address a range of issues, such as road safety, medical packaging, and environmental protection.2
Standards have played a major role in shaping the development of emerging technologies.3 These standards not only define technologies; they also shape how they are used. For instance, the World Bank defines technology standards for identity systems as those that relate to “the hardware, software, and platform involved in most technical aspects of the identity lifecycle, including creating and proofing identities, issuing credentials, authentication of identities, and the interoperability with other databases.”4
Technology standards differ from business norms and practices because they are considered to be international regulations that must be met in order to sell and distribute goods around the world in a safe and responsible manner. They offer significant advantages by facilitating coordination among interested parties as they establish broad agreement on specific technologies. Particularly in the digital arena, the increasing pace of innovation has triggered more technology standard-setting activities.5
Korea’s Role in New and Emerging Technologies
Korea is considered one of the world’s most innovative nations.6 The Bloomberg Innovation Index has ranked Korea as the most innovative country for seven out of the nine years that the index has been published.7 The World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2022 ranked the country sixth in the world and first in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania.8 In the latter index, Korea ranked particularly high in human capital and research (ranked first) and knowledge and creative outputs (ranked fourth). The Korean city Daejeon is one of the world’s top three most research-intensive science and technology clusters.9 Similarly, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has described Korea as a “global powerhouse in science and technology,” and it has one of the world’s most advanced digital economies. The country has been named as one of the leaders in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector due to its high broadband penetration, fiber-optic connections, and 5G commercial subscriptions.10 Furthermore, Korea has used these ICT connections to implement infrastructural innovations such as collecting traffic data and building smart cities.11
The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT announced in September 2022 that the country’s future technological developments will focus on six areas: artificial intelligence (AI), AI semiconductors, 5G and 6G communication, quantum, metaverse, and cybersecurity. The ministry also said that there will be continued partnerships between the public sector and the private sector to support and harness human capital in the era of digitalization.12
Standard Setting in Korea
Although Korea is home to many top technology companies, it has only recently emerged as a leader in the development of global technology standards. For decades, the United States, Japan, and several European countries have played more high-profile roles in standard setting—a trend that is changing. In 2023, for example, Sung Hwan Cho, the president of Hyundai Mobis, was elected president of the ISO. Cho will serve as the first Korean president of the ISO in 2024–2025.13
Both the Korean government and the private sector could help establish or revise the country’s industry standards. Relevant government organizations, such as the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS),14 could initiate the process for Korea to adhere to international standards for new and emerging technologies. KATS could hire associations or research institutes to draft standards for specific technologies and/or industries. Relevant stakeholders could propose the establishment or revision of standards at any time.15
Once the initiation process starts, relevant government ministries and administration teams could evaluate the standards to determine whether there are any discrepancies in the application and use of the proposed standards. Additionally, a public hearing could be organized to discuss all stakeholders’ opinions. If any stakeholder requested a public hearing in writing, the president of KATS would be required to hold such a hearing. Here, the relevant stakeholders include research institutes, teaching institutes, technology producers, government actors, international stakeholders, and consumers.16
For technology-specific standard setting, the Industrial Standard Review Committee17 must submit proposed standards to the relevant technical review committee,18 which is composed of experts in each field. If it is deemed necessary, the standard proposal may be submitted to the specialized committee for further evaluation.19
Case Studies
Although the technology standard-setting process in Korea is largely led by the government, the private sector plays an important role by participating in workshops and being involved in international processes. The four case studies in this section showcase how private Korean companies have been involved in technology standard-setting processes. They include one consumer-oriented technology, namely the 5G mobile network, and three infrastructural technologies: smart meters, smart grids, and automated vehicles.
5G: A Consumer-Oriented Technology Case Study
Consumer-oriented technologies are directly marketed toward and used by consumers rather than businesses or governments. Consequently, they directly reflect consumers’ needs and wants and, compared to infrastructural technologies, are more sensitive to market demands. Because the transition toward digitalization has rapidly accelerated, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic,20 consumers may not have a deep understanding of consumer-oriented technologies. It is therefore critical that technology standards protect consumers’ safety and privacy and address other related societal concerns.
Enabled by its superfast broadband internet infrastructure and high smartphone penetration, Korea was the first country to adopt 5G, in April 2019, making 5G an ideal case study for this chapter. 5G is particularly relevant in showcasing Korea’s importance in the global standard-setting scene because it, along with China, has been leading the standard-setting efforts for 5G. In 2013, Yoon Jong-iok, then vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated that Korea and China were poised to lead the global research and development (R&D) effort to standardize 5G networks because of their large, fresh market opportunities as well as their dense populations in cities.21 Indeed, the Korea Information Society Development Institute found that Korea’s investment in R&D for ICT was ranked first among the largest twenty-four OECD countries in 2019.22
Even before 5G networks were introduced, Korea was leading the mobile telecommunications network race. One of the most notable inventions was WiBro, created by Samsung Electronics and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in 2004. With a speed of 50 megabits per second, it was faster than 3G mobile networks and was considered the technology that would shape the future of communications. In 2006, WiBro was commercialized by KT and SK Telecom, the two largest telecommunications service providers in Korea. That was five years before LTE was developed in 2011. But WiBro was eventually deemed unsuccessful for three reasons: there were few services on the internet that required such speeds at that time, there was a limited number of WiBro devices, and coverage was incomplete.23
Since then, private companies in Korea have continued to play active roles in the development and commercialization of new communications technologies. The most contemporary telecommunications service is 5G, which is used by half of all Koreans and accounts for 33 percent of mobile communication subscriptions and 72 percent of overall online traffic.24 5G uses 3.5 gigahertz band for consumer use and 28 gigahertz band for industry use, such as in factories, government agencies, hospitals, and schools. It follows the international standards established by the ITU and the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).25 The ITU introduces service scenarios and requirements, and the 3GPP meets those requirements through technology and infrastructural developments.
In Korea, a number of organizations have been involved in the development of 5G standards, including government actors (for instance, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the National Radio Research Agency, and the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning) and research organizations (for instance, the Telecommunications Technology Association, the Korea Radio Promotion Association, and the 5G Forum Korea). These organizations collaborate with international standards organizations to promote global standards harmonization, technology testing, and maintenance, as well as to address international standards within the Korean market.26
Critical to the standard-setting process is the way that private companies select standards to adopt and promote. A 2020 report by Strategy Analytics documented corporations’ contributions to 5G standardization through the 3GPP.27 The report focused on various metrics: the number of 5G-related papers, such as submitted papers and approved/agreed papers; chairman positions for all technical specification groups and working groups; and rapporteurs of 5G-related work items and study items for all such groups. It ranked China’s Huawei as the company with the most contributions to 5G standardization, while the two Korean companies included were ranked sixth (Samsung Electronics) and eleventh (LG Electronics). Similarly, IPLytics, a German think tank focused on intellectual property, showed that Huawei had the most patents related to the 5G technology in 2021, with Samsung Electronics (ranked second) and LG Electronics (ranked third) following closely behind.28 In this way, these Korean companies have been playing leading roles not just nationally but also for international standard setting.
Smart Meters, Smart Grids, and Automated Vehicles: Infrastructure-Related Technology Case Studies
Infrastructural technologies, particularly those related to energy and transportation, impact all people, so standards for these technologies have a direct impact on people’s safety and well-being. Through sensing, controlling, and networking, smart meters, smart grids, and automated vehicles—the focus of this chapter—communicate not only with consumers but also with each other to provide the most efficient and interoperable environment.29
Korea has been leading in some ways and lagging in other ways in the global race for these infrastructural technologies. For smart meters and smart grids, Korea joined the international effort to digitize energy systems early by establishing and developing test beds. (Here, digitization of energy systems refers to using smart technologies such as smart meters and smart grids to maintain, manage, and control supply and demand of energy.) In 2009, the town of Gujwa-eup in Jeju Province became one of the test beds for smart grids.30 Jeju also hosts a number of self-driving mobility tests. However, because of delays in development of level 3 automated vehicle technology, so far, the results from the test beds have been preliminary.31
For automated vehicles, North American and European countries have mostly been at the forefront of creating technology standards, and Korea is only now trying to join as one of the first countries to commercialize level 3 automated vehicle technologies.32 These infrastructural technologies are good case studies that exhibit the complex role that Korea plays in the global effort to set standards for new and emerging technologies.
Smart Meters and Smart Grids
Smart meters are the interfaces between the electrical grid and a building or a unit; they allow recording and potential monitoring of electricity consumption. Smart grids are electricity networks that use digital technologies to monitor and control the use of electricity and manage its transportation. Both smart meters and smart grids collect data regularly via wireless or wired communication technologies.33
The installation of smart meters and smart grids has skyrocketed globally in the past ten years or so, with some countries such as France and Norway making their installation mandatory.34 Some experimental projects—such as the GridWise Olympic Peninsula Project, the AEP Ohio gridSMART Demonstration Project, and the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, all in the United States—have shown the potential benefits of smart meters.35
These benefits include more efficient or real-time communication between producers and consumers, better and more sustainable grid management, and more consumer control.
Korea has developed its own systems and structures for smart grids and meters that are quite different from other countries’. For Korean apartment blocks, among the most common dwelling arrangements in the country, one smart meter is installed per block that consists of multiple households rather than one smart meter per household.
There are several potential issues around smart grids and smart meters that need to be addressed through standards, particularly privacy and data security. Because smart meters collect data several times an hour to gauge the electricity consumption of each household (or, in Korea’s case, each apartment block), they can reveal personally identifying information, such as whether someone is present and their lifestyle, habits, and employment status. One study revealed that, using smart meters, researchers could identify the TV channel that residents were watching.36 Disclosure or misuse of such information could be a severe privacy and security issue. Smart grids also pose potential security challenges such as hacking and use of malware.
In Korea, forums that involve stakeholder organizations have played a big role for standard setting, including for smart meters and grids. When smart meters were first introduced in the country in the early 2010s, government bodies formed to standardize the technology. The Smart Grid Standardization Forum was one such attempt. It was organized in Jeju in 2010 and convened government bodies such as the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and Korea Power Exchange; private companies such as SK Telecom, LG Energy Solution, and LS Electric; and scholars.37 The forum remains active and provides a space for various Korean stakeholders—as well as international standardization players such as the International Electrotechnical Commission, the ISO, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and the European Committee for Standardization—to discuss potential social and technological challenges of smart meters and grids.
Some key figures from the private sector have also emerged. The most notable person is Ja-Kyun Koo, the chair of LS Electric and of the Korea Smart Grid Association. That association has been a leader in establishing relevant technology standards for smart meters in Korea and has been involved in developing and establishing various sub-standards regarding national and international smart grid standardization.38
Despite Korea’s early development of test beds for smart meters and grids, the results have been disappointing. The smart grid project in Jeju was abandoned around 2013 after the organizers realized that without different electricity pricing schemes, the environmental impact would be minimal.39 Indeed, it has been difficult for private organizations to be readily involved in standardization processes for these technologies because Korea’s energy industry is managed by a government agency, KEPCO. The failed Jeju model raised doubts about smart meter technology in Korea; instead of being a global leader for the technology, Korea has taken a step backward.40
Automated Vehicles
Another case study involves automated vehicles, also known as autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars. SAE International, a nongovernmental professional association, provides a useful taxonomy to describe the levels of automation and the extent to which automation can change the driving environment and driver behavior.41 To briefly describe, level 0 refers to vehicles that have no automation technologies, and level 5 refers to vehicles that are fully automated and do not require any human driver interaction. Most technologies that are currently being developed and tested are level 3. Some companies, such as Tesla and Google, are testing level 4 technologies, in which fully automated driving is possible in some situations or environments. SAE International’s taxonomy for automated vehicles encompasses several components, including sensors, controls, communication, GPS and mapping, safety, cybersecurity, software platform, infrastructure, and performance.
The ISO is another major actor in international standard-setting processes for automated vehicles. It has developed and published documents on intelligent transport systems’ standards for braking, data sharing, and governance principles, among other topics.42
The Korean government has been ambitious in its commercialization of automated vehicles. It published a document in 2019 that stated it plans to build the infrastructural and institutional requirements for level 4 automation by 2024 and introduce level 4 automation on major roads by 2027.43 Considering the global ups and downs in the development of the technology, this goal could be unrealistic: a recent study found that most people in the industry do not expect to see level 4 vehicles commercially deployed before 2030.44 However, the document showcases the Korean government’s interest in automated vehicles.
Despite this interest, the country has been somewhat lagging on developing standards for automated vehicles. It was California and the Netherlands, for example, that first started testing remote-controlled automated vehicles on public roads. (That technology is not yet allowed to be tested on public roads in Korea.) Many existing standards on the vehicles, such as the level of automation, were developed in countries in North America and Europe.
However, Korean automotive corporations are becoming more daring. For example, Hyundai announced that it would launch level 3 autonomous driving technology some time in 2024.45 This release would make Hyundai one of the first—if not the first—company to commercialize level 3 automated vehicles to the public. The Korean private sector is therefore expected to play a more global role in this sphere, especially with Hyundai Mobis’s Cho becoming the president of the ISO in 2024. In addition, Hyundai Mobis organized an international forum in 2022 with Cho to discuss international automated vehicle standard-setting progress.46 This event was followed by a workshop in March 2023, which included researchers from several private companies such as Hyundai Mobis, LG Electronics, KT Corporation, Samsung Electronics, and LG Innotek. During the workshop, private sector personnel discussed standards on scenario and data collection, standards for automated vehicle parts, and ideas to support and lead international automated vehicle standards.47
The Korean government is also becoming more engaged. KATS hosted an international conference in 2021 to discuss standards for levels of automation for automated vehicles.48 Furthermore, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been involved in revising regulations to meet international automated vehicle standards, such as their speed while being tested on public roads, disengagement issues, and alarm systems.49 ETRI is another main player; it has also been involved in international levels of automation standard setting via SAE International.50
Main Takeaways From the Case Studies
Considering the processes of technology standards, it is inevitable that the Korean government will lead. Nevertheless, private companies have not been taking a back seat. The case studies reveal that the private sector has been involved in standard-setting processes in two main ways. The most obvious way is for an industry leader to assume a position that allows some influence over the standards. Cho is the most prominent example. But his term will only last two years starting in 2024. The second way is to have dozens of mid-level technical experts deeply engaged in writing standards. In the long run, this strategy will have more impact than one top executive devoting a few hours a week to managing a standards organization.
Technology Adoption
Although Korean companies are engaged in setting international technology standards, they play a larger role in promoting the adoption of these standards—particularly by incorporating the standards into new products and services. They often shape the strategies of tech companies and early adopters around the world, which in turn drives development of new standards and highlights issues that need to be addressed.
However, some standards that are adopted and promoted by Korean companies do not succeed. There are often two, three, or more technologies competing during the deployment and adoption phases. In many cases, this is a market-driven process in which private companies take the lead.
Mobile transaction technology is one helpful case study to showcase the factors that can influence technology standard adoption. In early 2015, Samsung acquired LoopPay, which provided an alternative to Apple Pay for non–Apple phone users in the United States.51 Later that year, using LoopPay technology, Samsung introduced Samsung Pay, which allowed Samsung phone users to purchase goods using debit or credit cards saved on their phones. Since then, Samsung Pay has been enhanced so that it is used for personal identification, digital identification, block chain accounts, student cards, digital car keys, movie tickets, and airplane tickets. In Korea, Samsung Pay is one of the leading mobile payment service providers, ranked third after Naver Pay and Kakao Pay.52 Although Naver Pay and Kakao Pay have larger market shares, they are different from Samsung Pay because they are software-based companies that use QR codes for payments, whereas Samsung uses its smartphone technology for mobile transactions.
Samsung Pay was successful from the beginning in Korea. Apple Pay, despite being introduced a year before Samsung Pay in the United States, could not be used in Korea until 2023. That is mainly because Apple Pay failed to use near field communication (NFC) technology. In Korea, most mobile payment transactions use magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology. Samsung smartphones have both NFC and MST technologies embedded, but Apple smartphones only support MST. After Apple Pay was introduced in Korea, store owners were required to purchase MST payment devices that cost approximately $120 to $150 to support Apple Pay. Consequently, some small shop owners pushed back against using Apple Pay.53
Two questions are then raised: First, why did Apple not adopt MST and NFC like Samsung did? Second, what made Korea’s mobile transaction market adopt MST? The answer to the first question is simple: Samsung acquired LoopPay, which invented MST, so Apple did not have access to MST technology.
The answer to the second question is more complex. MST technology, in which a card’s magnetic strip is swiped to make a digital payment, has been the foundational technology of credit and debit card purchases in Korea. Because most stores already had a payment device that supported MST, the transition to MST that Samsung Pay adopted was seamless. Around the mid-2010s, there were changes from MST to integrated circuit (IC) cards, which demanded new card readers for many shops. This switch raised the question of whether the new card readers should also have NFC reading functionality. However, due to concerns around cost and accessibility, this idea was shut down, and only IC readers were adopted.54 The question of added cost regarding the adoption of NFC is still being discussed in Korea. For vendors to be able to use NFC, they must purchase a different card reader. Furthermore, the media reported that Apple Pay’s transaction fees are quite high at 0.15 percent per transaction (five times what is charged in China), compared to Samsung, which has no transaction fees.55
This competition between MST and NFC was not seen in the United States. Based in the United States, Apple has always been a dominant smartphone brand there. From the beginning, Apple involved a large number of banks in the introduction and rollout of Apple Pay.56 This contrasts with Korea, where users must have a Hyundai credit card to use Apple Pay.57
It was the market that determined the adoption of MST in Korea, and the involved companies played a significant role in the deployment, distribution, and use of the technology. NFC’s omission from card readers was not related to technology standards, since the technology standards for NFC had been published in 2003. Instead, it was market adoption that led to wider use of MST transactions.58 The use of Apple Pay has also been stymied by transaction fees and technology inaccessibility. This case study denotes the importance of socioeconomic factors that drive technology development, distribution, and adoption.
Strategic Leadership and the Korean Private IT Sector
Traditionally, in a market economy, companies’ main role has been to produce goods for consumers and profit from sales of those goods. But today, companies are no longer expected to only produce profit—they should also contribute to society through ethical business practices.
The transnational companies that originated in Korea have promoted corporate social responsibility. For example, Samsung has identified “creating shared value” as one of its key concepts in its sustainability reports since 2013, indicating its dedication to environmental and social sustainability.59 The company highlights its environmental sustainability programs and employee benefits. Researchers showed that Hyundai has also worked to improve the quality of the lives of marginalized people.60 For example, in 2023, Hyundai Motors and Kia Motors—which have the same mother company, Hyundai—donated approximately $158 million, surpassing the total donation amount of Samsung Electronics for the first time.61
Additionally, Korea has benefited from having millions of eager early adopters willing to experiment with new products and services, and Korean companies have developed techniques for learning from their customers. Tailoring products to customers’ needs and concerns is one reason private companies in Korea have produced digital goods that have become wildly popular around the world.
There is an intimate relationship between corporate social responsibility and strategic leadership, defined as the use of assets to achieve organizational and individual goals.62 For companies to understand the demands of the public and contribute to environmental and social sustainability, strategic leadership—or more specifically digital leadership—must be construed as a key pathway through which these goals can be achieved.63 Digital leadership not only involves setting standards; it also includes norms of behavior, which affect corporate behavior, processes, culture, and organizational structure. Although their role within Korea is somewhat lacking in standard-setting processes, private companies have been leading and guiding the industry on corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility.64
Conclusion
While the private sector in Korea has produced several international leaders who have taken a top-down approach to setting standards, Korea should also do more to build out bottom-up approaches that involve employees and the public in order for the country to exercise more influence within the international standard-setting community.
The following points may be further discussed to improve the democratic process of technology standard setting in Korea (and elsewhere):
- greater involvement of corporate researchers, developers, and engineers;
- greater involvement of corporate leaders in the international standard-setting scene;
- involvement of the public, especially for consumer-oriented technologies;
- greater transparency of technology standard-setting processes through reports and/or recordings of workshops; and
- opportunities for the public to learn more about standard-setting processes, especially regarding consumer-oriented technologies.
Because new and emerging technologies are now developing at a speed that it is difficult for regulators to match, private standard setting and voluntary standards have become increasingly important, and corporate actors often play a critical role.65 A deeper discussion on voluntary technology assessments and private standards may be required to further promote the development of safe technologies.
Notes
1 “ISO – Structure and Governance,” International Organization for Standardization, accessed February 4, 2024, https://www.iso.org/structure.html.
2 Robert H. Allen and Ram D. Sriram, “The Role of Standards in Innovation,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 64, no. 2–3 (2000): 171–181, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-1625(99)00104-3; and “Benefits of ISO Standards,” International Organization for Standardization, accessed February 4, 2024, https://www.iso.org/benefits-of-standards.html.
3 Allen and Sriram, “The Role of Standards in Innovation”; Hong Jiang et al., “Competition of Technology Standards in Industry 4.0: An Innovation Ecosystem Perspective,” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 37, no. 4 (2020): 772–783, https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2718; and Timothy Simcoe, “Standard Setting Committees: Consensus Governance for Shared Technology Platforms,” American Economic Review 102, no. 1 (2012): 305–336, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.102.1.305.
4 “ID4D Practitioner’s Guide,” World Bank Group, October 2019, 195, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/248371559325561562/ID4D-Practitioner-s-Guide.
5 Katrin Hussinger and Franz Schwiebacher, “The Market Value of Technology Disclosures to Standard Setting Organizations,” Industry and Innovation 22, no. 4 (May 19, 2015): 321–344, https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2015.1049866; and Timothy Simcoe, “Explaining the Increase in Intellectual Property Disclosure,” SSRN Scholarly Paper, December 1, 2005, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1396332.
6 Leigh Dayton, “How South Korea Made Itself a Global Innovation Leader,” Nature 581, no. 7809 (May 28, 2020): S54–S56, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01466-7; and Tae Kyung Sung, “Industry 4.0: A Korea Perspective,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 132 (2018): 40–45, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.11.005.
7 Michelle Jamrisko, Wei Lu, and Alex Tanzi, “South Korea Leads World in Innovation as U.S. Exits Top Ten (1),” Bloomberg Law, February 3, 2021, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/south-korea-leads-world-in-innovation-as-u-s-exits-top-ten-1.
8 Soumitra Dutta et al., “Global Innovation Index 2022: What Is the Future of Innovation-Driven Growth?,” World Intellectual Property Organization, 2022, https://doi.org/10.34667/TIND.46596.
9 Dutta et al., “Global Innovation Index 2022.”
10 Silvia Appelt et al., “A Global Powerhouse in Science and Technology,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, October 25, 2021, https://www.oecd.org/country/korea/thematic-focus/a-global-powerhouse-in-science-and-technology-61cbd1ad.
11 Appelt et al., “A Global Powerhouse in Science and Technology.”
12 “Korea to Come Up With the Roadmap of Digital ROK, Realizing the New York Initiative,” South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT, September 28, 2022, https://www.msit.go.kr/eng/bbs/view.do?sCode=eng&mId=4&mPid=2&bbsSeqNo=42&nttSeqNo=742.
13 “국제표준화기구(ISO) 수장으로 한국인 최초 당선,” Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, September 9, 2022, https://blog.naver.com/katsblog/222882089965.
14 In Korean, KATS is called국가기술표준원.
15 “한국산업표준,” Korean Agency for Technology Standards, accessed February 4, 2024, https://www.kats.go.kr/content.do?cmsid=28.
16 “한국산업표준,” Korean Agency for Technology Standards.
17 In Korean, the Industrial Standard Review Committee is called 산업표준심의회.
18 In Korean, the relevant technical review committee is called 기술심의회.
19 In Korean, the specialized committee is called 전문위원회.
20 Jong-gi Kim et al., “디지털 전환 가속화에 따른 ICT산업의 신성장전략,” Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, December 31, 2021, https://www.kiet.re.kr/research/reportView?report_no=1029.
21 JH Bae, “Korea, China Join Forces to Set a Global Standard for 5G Mobile Technology,” KIPOST, July 5, 2013, https://www.kipost.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=54694; and Dan Meyer, “EC, South Korea to Work Towards Common 5G Standard,” RCR Wireless News, June 16, 2014, https://www.rcrwireless.com/20140616/network-infrastructure/ec-south-korea-work-towards-common-5g-standard.
22 Korea Information Society Development Institute, 2022 ICT Industry Outlook of Korea (2021): 36, https://mediasvr.egentouch.com/egentouch.media/apiFile.do?action=view&SCHOOL_ID=1007002&URL_KEY=22ed8f99-548d-424c-a1de-7acfdfb1944b.
23 Jieun Park, Seongcheol Kim, and Changi Nam, “Why Has a Korean Telecommunications Technology Failed: A Case Study on WiBro,” Telematics and Informatics 32, no. 4 (2015): 603–612, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2015.01.002.
24 Doil Son et al., “5G Regulation and Law in South Korea,” CMS, 2023, https://cms.law/en/int/expert-guides/cms-expert-guide-to-5g-regulation-and-law/south-korea.
25 “5G System Overview,” 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 2022, https://www.3gpp.org/technologies/5g-system-overview.
26 DJ Kim, YJ Jeong, and HY Lee, “5G 표준화 추진 동향 및 전망,” TTA Journal 175, no. 21 (2018): https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO201867551543473.pdf; and Hyeyoung Lee and Yongjun Jeong, “5G, 표준화의 성공 – 그리고 미래를 위한 노력,” TTA Journal 184 (2019): https://www.tta.or.kr/tta/preportNewsNDownload.do?sfn=20230506112746829_RxbP.pdf.
27 Guang Yang, “Who Are the Leading Players in 5G Standardization? An Assessment for 3GPP 5G Activities,” Strategy Analytics, 2020, https://www.strategyanalytics.com/access-services/service-providers/networks-and-service-platforms/reports/report-detail/who-are-the-leading-players-in-5g-standardization-an-assessment-for-3gpp-5g-activities.
28 “5G Patents Held by Leading Companies World Wide as of September 2021,” Statista, November 29, 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1276457/leading-owners-of-5g-patents-worldwide.
29 Francesco Gavino Brundu et al., “IoT Software Infrastructure for Energy Management and Simulation in Smart Cities,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 13, no. 2 (2017): 832–840, https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2016.2627479; and Anurag Verma et al., “Sensing, Controlling, and IoT Infrastructure in Smart Building: A Review,” IEEE Sensors Journal 19, no. 20 (October 15, 2019): 9036–9046, https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2019.2922409.
30 In Korean, the town is called 구자읍.
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38 Min, “Jeju, Test-Bed for the World’s Smart Grid Industry.”
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