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◎ In accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, environmental impact assessment means the provision of a plan to avoid, eliminate or reduce damaging environmental impact by making an advance investigation, prediction and evaluation of the impact a project or business can have on the environment. This is conducted when providing a permit, approval, license or decision “approval, etc.”) of execution plans that can have an impact on the environment. ◎ The projects subject to environmental impact assessment are classified into 81 subcategories in 17 categories such as urban development, and are prescribed in Article 22 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act and attached Table 3 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act. ◎ The environmental impact assessment procedure is as follows: ① Prepare a draft environment impact assessment report – The project implementer must prepare a draft of the environmental impact assessment report and collect the opinions of the residents. ② Prepare the environmental impact assessment report and request launch of consultation – A project implementer that should receive an approval, etc. shall prepare an environmental impact assessment report and submit it to the head of the approving authority. The head of the approving authority must request consultation with the Minister of Environment. – A project implementer that does not require approval shall prepare an environmental impact assessment report and submit it to the Ministry of Environment. ③ Notification and implementation of matters of consultation – The Minister of Environment must notify the head of the approval authority or project implementer (“head of the approval authority, etc.") within 45 days from the date of receiving a request for consultation (for unavoidable cases, the period can be extended to 60 days) of the details of the consultation that was conducted. ④ Implementation and report of consultation matters that were notified – The head of the approving authority, etc. shall take the necessary measures to reflect the consultation matters that were reported into the relevant business plan. When an approval or confirmation has been made for a business plan, the results shall be reported to the Minister of Environment.

In 2015, the international community adopted the Paris Agreement as a replacement and follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol. The Agreement laid the foundation for the launch of the new climate regime participated by all parties to the Convention by 2021. ◎ Consequently, the Korean government established national greenhouse gas reduction goals for 2030, and submitted the plan to the international community before the launch of the new climate regime. In order to achieve national greenhouse gas reduction goals stipulated by domestic law*, Korea is making its best efforts to contribute to the successful settlement of the new climate regime, such as establishing and implementing greenhouse gas reduction roadmaps through emissions trading, target management and other policy measures.

The classification of waste treatment business for the collection, transport, recycling or disposal of wastes is prescribed by Article 25(5) of the Wastes Control Act and the operational details by each category of business shall be as follows: – Waste collection and transportation business: A business that either collects wastes and transports them to a recycling or treatment facility or collects and transports wastes to export them – Interim waste disposal business: A business that specializes in interim disposal wastes, such as disposal by incineration, physical, chemical or biological disposal, or any other disposal in a manner acknowledged and publicly notified by the Minister of Environment as a safe way to intermediately dispose of wastes, with facilities for interim disposal of wastes – Terminal waste disposal business: A business that specializes in final disposal of wastes, such as landfills (excluding discharging into the sea) with facilities for final disposal of wastes – General waste disposal business: A business that performs both interim and final disposal of wastes with facilities for interim and final disposal of wastes – Interim waste recycling business: A business that manufactures intermediately processed wastes with facilities for recycling of wastes – Terminal waste recycling business: A business that performs the recycling of intermediately processed wastes in accordance with the principles of recycling wastes or matters to be observed under Article 13-2, with facilities for recycling of wastes – General waste recycling business: A business that conducts both interim recycling business and terminal recycling business with facilities for recycling of wastes

In regard to the collection, transport and recycling of waste that is exported or imported, the Wastes Control Act or the Act on the Promotion of Saving and Recycling of Resources is applied. ◎ Therefore, when intending to collect, transfer and export wastes, a permission for waste collection and transfer pursuant to Article 25 of the Wastes Control Act should be obtained. Where interim waste treatment is required, a permission for interim waste treatment business should be acquired. ◎ In addition, where a permission to import wastes is obtained, the imported wastes should be treated by the importer or commissioned to a legitimate treatment entity in accordance with Article 18-3 of the Act on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes.

The guarantee of treatment of abandoned waste is a system to prevent the abandonment of waste by waste treatment business entities specializing in industrial wastes and persons who have filed a report on waste treatment pursuant to Article 40 of the Wastes Control Act. Under the system, waste treatment business entities, etc. form a mutual aid association for waste treatment business and choose either of the following measures: pay a certain amount of contribution to the mutual aid association so that the association can treat the abandoned wastes of its members; or purchase an insurance policy covering the cost of waste treatment. The purpose of this system is to guarantee the treatment of abandoned waste that may be generated from the default or business closure of waste treatment business entities.

"Household chemical products that require safety check" are household chemical products that are recognized as having risk as a result of risk evaluation and designated and publicly announced as such by the Minister of Environment. As of the end of June 2020, 39 items including cleaners and laundry detergents have been designated and announced. Also, to manufacture or import such products of which the safety standards have been publicly announced, a confirmation of conformity by a testing or inspection agency is required. ◎ When a household chemical product that requires safety check received confirmation of conformity with safety standards, a report should be filed to the President of the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI). To manufacture or import household chemical products for which safety standards have not been publicly announced, an approval of the President of the National Institute of Environmental Research should be obtained.

When intending to manufacture or import 1 t or more of phase-in chemical substances or 100 kg or more of non phase-in substances per year, a registration should be filed with the President of the National Institute of Environmental Research. However, in the case of phase-in chemical substances of 1 t or more per year, manufacturing or importing is permitted without registration during the grace period for registration. To have the grace period applied, a report should be filed to the CEO of Korea Environment Corporation. ◎ To manufacture or import non phase-in substances subject to report, a report should be filed to the President of the National Institute of Environmental Research. ◎ To manufacture or import substances subject to intensive control, report to the head of the relevant river basin environmental office or regional environmental office.

Before establishing a factory, if the manufacturing facilities, etc. that are to be established within the factory fall under the category of "facilities that discharge environmental pollutants" as defined by environmentrelated laws, a prior permit/approval must be acquired regarding establishment of discharging facilities as prescribed by such laws. ※ For details regarding permits and approvals for installation of facilities that discharge environmental pollutants as prescribed by environmental laws, refer to the book "Environmental Policies in Korea 2020" available in PDF format on the Invest Korea website (www.investkorea.org).

Data on wages are considered sensitive and confidential, so it is hard to access data on the wages the employees of foreigninvested companies. However, some consulting companies or head-hunting companies might have their own comparative data on such wages. Also, the Ministry of Employment provides statistical data on labor and employment through its website (laborstat.moel.go.kr) where users can access information on the wages of Korea classified by industry, size of business, type of employment, business type, etc.

A temporary shutdown means that even though an employee wishes to provide labor as per the labor contract, such a provision of labor is not possible or the employer refuses to receive service. According to Article 46 of the Labor Standards Act, when a business shuts down due to a cause attributable to the employer, he/she shall pay the employees concerned allowances of not less than 70 percent of their average wages during the period of shutdown. If that amount exceeds the amount of ordinary wage, ordinary wage can be paid as shutdown allowance. ◎ A cause attributable to the employer can be considered as a business disruption that is caused within the scope of the authority of the employer. Therefore, although each matter requires careful individual judgment, 1) poor sales and financial difficulty; 2) lack of raw materials; 3) transfer of factory; 4) market recession and production volume reduction, etc. have been recognized as causes attributable to the employer.