Background

The Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (known as Korea REACH) passed the plenary session of the National Assembly in S-Korea on April 30, 2013 and has come into force on Jan 1, 2015. Dec. 2016, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) started to revise the K-REACH and the amended K-REACH came into force from 1 Jan. 2019.

The purpose of K-REACH is to protect public health and the environment through these provisions:
Registration of chemical Substances;
Screening of hazardous chemical substances;
Hazard and risk assessment of products containing chemical substances and hazardous substances;
Sharing information of chemical substance.

The Ministry of Environment (MoE) is responsible for the registration and evaluation of chemical substance under this Act.

Key Date of K-REACH/Amended K-REACH

31 December 2030 - Deadline for registration of substances exceeding 1t/y.
31 December 2027 - Deadline for registration of substances exceeding 10t/y
31 December 2024 - Deadline for registration of substances exceeding 100t/y
31 December 2021 - Deadline for registration of CMR substances exceeding 1t/y and substances exceeding 1000t/y
30 June 2019 - Deadline for K-REACH pre-registration
1 January 2019 - Commencement of the amended K-REACH
1 July 2018 - End of grace period - PECs joint registration
21 November 2015 - K-REACH: new substances notification leniency programme ends
1 July, 2015 - Release the 1st List of existing substances subject to registration under K-REACH
30 June 2015 - Inform MoE of existing (TCCA) new substance hazard assessment results
1 January 2015 - "K-REACH" comes into force
31 March 2014 - Submission deadline: existing chemicals hazard and risk assessment-TCCA