South Korea is a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), being one of the 44 listed countries needed to sign and ratify for the CTBT to enter into force.

Nuclear activities were initiated when South Korea became a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957. In 1958 the Atomic Energy Law was passed and in 1959 the Office of Atomic Energy was established by the government. The first nuclear reactor to achieve criticality in South Korea was a small research unit in 1962. Today 20 nuclear reactors are operational, providing around 40% of the country's electricity.

Under the South Korea's 5th long-term power development plan, finalised in January 2000, eight more nuclear reactors were to be constructed by 2015, with two units being decommissioned about 2008. This would bring nuclear to a third of the country's total generating capacity and it would supply 45% of the electricity.

The Ministry of Science & Technology's third comprehensive nuclear energy development plan, for 2007-11, projected that South Korea should develop its nuclear industry into one of the top five in the world, with about 60% of electricity from nuclear by 2035. As well as emphasis on production of nuclear fuel, the report envisaged construction of the Korean APR-1400 reactor.

Read the profile on the Republic of Korea from the Model Nuclear Inventory (pdf), produced by the Reaching Critical Will project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.