Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment signed a memorandum of understanding on August 7 at the Korea Productivity Center in Seoul, titled “Strengthening Mutual Cooperation on Used Battery Policy.” Vice Minister Moon Shin-hak represented MOTIE and First Vice Minister Geum Han-seung represented the climate ministry. The agreement’s substance: link up the information systems and certification schemes the two ministries have each run separately for used batteries, so businesses no longer have to deal with each ministry on its own track.
What’s been split apart until now
Up to this point, a business handling used batteries had to deal with both ministries independently. The climate ministry has built its information system around greenhouse gas life-cycle assessment (LCA) and recycling; MOTIE has built its around used-battery distribution and repurposing. Certification for recycled content worked the same way — the climate ministry runs a certification scheme for producing recycled content, while MOTIE runs a separate one for the recycled-content share used in a product. The agreement includes language allowing “documentation submitted for production certification to also be used for use certification,” which reads as an acknowledgment that businesses have effectively had to submit similar paperwork to both certification tracks up to now.
What the agreement commits to merging
What’s actually locked in at this point is the signing of the agreement itself — the work of merging the systems and schemes starts from here. The two ministries agreed to build a “battery trade and traceability platform” linking their separate information systems, and to align recycled-content certification around seven materials — lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate, manganese sulfate, mixed metal precipitate, and cathode active material — so that production-certification paperwork can carry over to use certification. They also committed to revising related regulations: transport and storage rules for distributors, management standards for recyclers. Neither ministry gave a start or completion date for any of this.
Clean-up ahead of a new law
The agreement also addresses continuity for existing operations. The Future Waste Resources Collection Center, which has handled public-sector collection and resale of used batteries — specifically, return-mandated batteries from EVs registered through the end of 2020 — will keep operating after the Act on the Management and Industrial Promotion of Used Batteries takes effect next May. The two ministries committed to writing that continuity into subordinate legislation. That Act is a separate law that reclassifies used batteries as an industrial resource rather than waste; this MOU reads less like a standalone initiative and more like the two ministries clearing out their existing, separately built systems ahead of that law taking effect.
What’s still open
Joint R&D and a working-level council were also announced, but both remain at the planning stage. The council will be co-chaired by the climate ministry’s resource circulation bureau director and MOTIE’s advanced industry policy director, with a mandate to keep identifying cooperation items beyond what’s in this agreement. When the traceability platform, certification linkage, and regulatory revisions will actually happen, and in what order, wasn’t addressed in this announcement.
For a business repurposing used batteries specifically, the more direct change is likely to show up in how history gets verified. As the previous piece in this series, KC 10031: How Korea Actually Inspects Repurposed Batteries, laid out, a battery with an unresolved recall issue is excluded from inspection under KC 10031 — which has meant the business sourcing the battery has had to verify recall history on its own. If the traceability platform actually comes online, that verification path could change. For a repurposing business, that’s arguably a more direct effect than the reduction in recycled-content certification paperwork. When either change actually takes effect, though, isn’t something this agreement alone answers. ARC Current will keep tracking how the traceability platform and certification linkage actually get implemented, and when a concrete timeline surfaces.
Source: [Korea.kr Policy Briefing] “Government Tears Down Inter-Ministry Silos, Unifies ‘Used Battery’ Management” (https://www.korea.kr/news/policyNewsView.do?newsId=148969676)
Source: [IndustryNews] “Climate and Trade Ministries Strengthen Used Battery Policy Cooperation — Integrated Traceability, Industrial Competitiveness” (https://www.industrynews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=84252)
Source: [Money Today] “Climate and Trade Ministries Join Hands to Boost Battery Recycling — Build Integrated Management Platform” (https://www.mt.co.kr/economy/2026/08/07/2026080709111853931)