- An investment of KRW 220 billion in super performance, hyperspace, and super precision ‧ standards (until 2025)
- MoU between Korea and the US as a follow-up measure of the Korea-US Summit (about KRW 10 billion, until 2025)
- Leadership on international standard discussions with Korea making it to the chairpersons on international standard organizations (ITU, 3GPP)
- Training of experts by designating university R&D research centers (3 in 2021, 4 in 2022)



Korea gets ready for 6G, after its successful roll-out of 5G for the first time in the world.



The Ministry of Science and ICT (“MSIT”, led by Minister Lim Hyesook) held public-private "6G Strategy Meeting" as a follow-up of the Korea-US Summit to lead the upcoming 6G era and established 「6G R&D implementation plan」



At the latest Korea-US Summit the two countries agreed to build a future-oriented partnership in 6G, the future's new technology, and expand cooperation including joint research. The ministry said that all of this laid the foundation for Korea to strengthen its competitiveness on the global stage.



The global community expects that the roll-out of 6G will take place between 2028 and 2030*, given a new generation of mobile communication emerges every ten years. The next-generation mobile communication technology is the key technology not only for the great digital transition but also for the growth of the future's new industries. Thus, efforts to take lead in the advancing technology and to lead the global standards are a must to lead the global leadership.
* 3G('Japan, 2001), 4G(Europe, 2009), 5G(Korea, 2019), 6G(expected to roll out between 2028-2030)



※ Korea's journey to 5G : 4G service start in 2011, 5G standardization organization in 2012, 5G R&D started in 2013, ITU reflected Korea's strong technologies in 2017 → suggested 5G candidate technology in 2018, 5G roll-out success in 2019 for the first in the world.



Major countries such as the US and China have joined the race to lead the technology competition by expanding investments into the next-generation mobile technology. The US has recently strengthened cooperation in 6G technology with its allies, following the start of long-term R&D led by the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). China launched an organization dedicated to 6G and Japan has launched and operated a public private "Beyond 5G Consortium since 2020".



[Korea·US Joint Research MoU]



At the strategy meeting, the two sides discussed how to expand interactions including joint research in 6G, continuing the achievements of May’s Korea-US Summit. Institute for Information & Communication Technology Promotion (IITP) and National Science Foundation(NSF) signed an MoU for joint research cooperation and decided to start joint research in 6G starting from 2021.



The meeting was joined by Robert Rabson Chargé d'Affaires ad interim at U.S. Embassy in Seoul to support cooperation between Korea and the US, strengthened by the MoU signing with NSF. The two countries have agreed to actively cooperate in next-generation technologies such as 6G.



In the following meeting, the 6G R&D Implementation Plan and measures for leading global 6G standards were discussed. The experts participating in the meeting emphasized the need for active public-private cooperation in early stages of next-generation communicaions technologies to secure competitiveness in the future digital society.



[Key features of the 6G R&D Implementation Plan]



The 6G R&D Implementation Plan lays out detailed action plans for becoming a global leader in 6G technology: 1) Secure next-generation key original technologies, 2) Gain dominance in international standards and patents, and 3) Lay the foundation for 6G research and industry.



First, in order to secure next-generation key original technologies, ①the government will invest in technologies that the private sector is reluctant to invest at the moment. The ten key strategic technologies in six focus areas include Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and ultra-precision network. A total of KRW 200 billion will be invested by 2025, and a total of KRW 17.9 billion will be invested in 2021 in 12 tasks.