On September 15, 2026, South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) opened a legislative pre-announcement for a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Aviation Safety Act, under MOLIT Notice No. 2026-1172. The draft is handled by the Advanced Aviation Division (cheomdanhanggonggwa), the MOLIT unit that owns urban air mobility (UAM) and advanced-aircraft policy, and the comment window runs through October 26, 2026.
The Enforcement Decree (sihaengnyeong) is the highest delegated instrument under the Aviation Safety Act, issued at Presidential level, and it is the specific legal home of the cheomdanhanggigi provisions that govern UAM, eVTOL and drone operations. A refinement from this division at this point in the calendar is the next expected step on Korea's K-UAM roadmap, where a certification and safety framework is due by 2027 ahead of initial commercial service in 2028.
What does the draft amendment change?
The notice publishes a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree, the delegated layer that fills in the Aviation Safety Act's operational detail. The decree is where the advanced-aircraft regime already lives: Article 49-3 (business license standards for advanced-aviation operators), Article 64-2 (operation and training requirements) and Annex 1 (type definitions for cheomdanhanggigi) were inserted by the 2024 full revision of the decree and have been in force since January 1, 2026.
The amendment text itself is published in HWPX format, which means the specific article-level changes are not yet machine-readable from the notice page. What is confirmed at publication is the instrument level (Presidential Decree), the owning division (Advanced Aviation) and the roadmap timing. Practitioners tracking concrete obligations should download the draft text and regulatory impact analysis directly from the MOLIT pre-notice page and read the HWPX files rather than rely on a summary.
Who must pay attention, and why now?
The exposed audience is identifiable and commercial: Korean UAM developers and their consortia, eVTOL manufacturers seeking Korean type certification, drone operators working under the existing Article 129 special-flight approval regime, and air carriers operating into Korean airspace whose advanced-aircraft planning touches MOLIT's licensing perimeter. For these actors the draft surfaces certification and airworthiness obligations before they bind, which is materially more useful than reacting to an enforced rule with no surprises left.
The timing aligns with a tracked K-UAM milestone. Under the Act on the Promotion and Support for Utilization of Urban Air Mobility (Act No. 19768) and its Enforcement Decree, MOLIT's roadmap commits to establishing the safety systems, including aircraft certification and cybersecurity, by 2027. This Enforcement Decree amendment is the delegated-layer instrument where those obligations take legal shape, and it lands in 2026 exactly as the roadmap anticipated.
How does this fit the K-UAM decree path?
The amendment is the next link in a documented chain, not an isolated draft. The 2024 full revision of this same Enforcement Decree, promulgated as Presidential Decree No. 33485 and in force since January 1, 2026, introduced the cheomdanhanggigi definitions, the Article 49-3 business license standards and the Article 64-2 operation and training rules. Korean trade press covered that revision as the legal foundation for UAM commercialization. This 2026 partial amendment is the refinement that follows on top of it.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Full revision of the Aviation Safety Act Enforcement Decree (Presidential Decree No. 33485) inserts the UAM provisions |
| January 1, 2026 | That full revision enters into force |
| September 15, 2026 | This partial amendment draft published for legislative pre-notice |
| October 26, 2026 | Comment window closes |
| By 2027 | K-UAM certification and safety framework due |
| 2028 | Initial K-UAM commercial service targeted |
What should exposed actors do by October 26?
Three actions are time-bound. First, download the HWPX draft amendment and the regulatory impact analysis from the pre-notice text (PDF) and identify the articles touching your certification or operating-authorisation path. Second, submit formal comments through the MOLIT pre-notice comment system before the October 26 deadline, the channel Article 41 of the Administrative Procedures Act requires for the government to receive and consider stakeholder input. Third, map the draft's certification or airworthiness obligations against your K-UAM roadmap and brief the regulatory affairs and airworthiness teams.
Continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring surfaces this kind of delegated-layer change the moment it publishes on the MOLIT pre-notice list, which is how this draft appeared as a new item today.
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Verify whether your aircraft, operating model or business licence falls under the amended decree articles, confirm the October 26 comment deadline against your internal review cycle, and brief the team that owns K-UAM certification readiness. Obsidian tracks this file as it moves from pre-notice through promulgation and into force.
