1. Reason for enactment

The advance environmental review and ex-post management of human acts of using or exploring the ocean have become increasingly important since it is more likely for the ocean to be polluted and the marine ecosystem to be damaged, thus aggravating the friction with existing users of marine resources as the number and scale of activities for using and developing marine have increased. Accordingly, the Marine Utilization Impact Assessment Act (Law No. 19910; promulgated on January 2, 2024), which includes provisions aimed at strengthening the post-management and supervision functions by separating the system of environmental review in the marine field from the Marine Environment Management Act, has been enacted. The proposed Enforcement Rules aim to stipulate the matters delegated by the Act and other matters for its enforcement.

2. Main contents

a. Purpose (Article 1) 

- Purpose of the Enforcement Decree

b. Subjects and procedures for marine utilization consultation (Articles 2 to 5)

- Specifies the subjects and procedures for marine utilization consultation and marine utilization impact assessment, and designates the specialized agency to review consultation documents.

c. Review of decisions on assessment items, scope, etc., draft assessment reports, and collection of opinions (Article 6 to 12).

- Method of composition of the committee for marine utilization impact assessment, heads of the relevant administrative agencies, methods of and periods for publicizing and reading draft assessment reports, methods of submitting stakeholders' opinions, criteria for holding and omitting briefing sessions and public hearings, and criteria for re-hearing opinions on key changes.

d. Preparation and consultation of the marine utilization impact assessment report (Articles 13 to 19) 

- Timing to request consultation on marine utilization impact assessment, specialized review agencies for assessment reports, periods for notifying opinions and for filing appeals, issues subject to re-consultation, contents and review of marine environment conservation plans, and cases of exemption from the obligation to prepare consultation opinion management registers.

e. Delegation of assessment report preparation, business capability assessment, and business of selection for evaluation agents (Articles 20 to 22) 

- Subjects for separating the preparation of marine utilization impact assessments and marine environmental impact survey reports, the institution responsible for evaluating business capabilities, and the target projects for selecting evaluation agents. 

f. Information support system, specialized personnel training institutes (Articles 23 to 24) 

- Application documents for entrusting the deployment and operation of information support systems and the designation of specialized human resource training institutes.

g. Delegation of authority and entrustment of tasks, unique identification information (Articles 25 to 27)

- Items for which the authority and tasks may be entrusted, tasks for which unique identification information may be processed.