Review on 18^th Revision of 'Notice on Export and Import of Strategic Items'

Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has established a guideline and continued to revise it in accordance with ever-changing international situation and developing technology. The Part 1 of guideline, 'Guidelines of Nuclear Transfers' covers the Trigger List items which triggers safeguards as a condition of supply. Currently NSG has published the 12^th revised guideline (INFCIRC/254/Rev.12/Part1) in November 2013. Korean government fully reflected the guideline to its national legislation to implement in accordance with internationally agreed standard. The export control of nuclear strategic items in Korea is responsibility of Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC), which entrusted the technical review of the work to Korea Institute of Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC). The specific guidelines for the technical review are stipulated in Notice on Export and Import of Strategic Items with other strategic items usable to other Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy approved the 18^th revision of Notice on Export and Import of Strategic Items on 31 January 2014 as Notice no. 2014-15, which strictly follows the NSG guideline. The 18^th revision of the notice reflects the final proposals agreed from the last Dedicated Meeting of Technical Experts (DMTE) of NSG's Consultative Group (CG) in April 2013. The 3-year-DMTE offered the 'fundamental, holistic approach to the technical review' within the international framework of NSG, rather than sporadic endeavors by individual states in the past. The 18^th version itself has meaning in that the final products of the international technical review were reflected in the Korean national legislation of nuclear export control. It addressed various changes in control text in technical, contextual, and editorial aspects. The revision is analyzed herein concentrating only on technical and semantic changes in control text