South Korea officially released the KC 62368-1 standard,
KC,

▍What is KC?

Since 25^th Aug., 2008，Korea Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) announced that the National Standard Committee will conduct a new national unified certification mark — named KC mark replacing Korean Certification during the time between Jul. 2009 and Dec. 2010. Electrical Appliances safety certification scheme (KC Certification) is a mandatory and self-regulatory safety confirmation scheme according to Electrical Appliances Safety Control Act, a scheme which certified safety of manufacture and sale. 

The difference between mandatory certification and self-regulatory (voluntary) safety confirmation：

For the safe management of electrical appliances, KC certification is divided into mandatory and self-regulatory  (voluntary) safety certifications as the classification of danger of  product.The subjects of Mandatory certification is applied to electrical appliances which its structures and methods of application may cause serious dangerous results or obstacle such as fire, electric shock. While the subjects of self-regulatory (voluntary) safety certification is applied to electrical appliances which its structures and methods of application can hardly causes serious dangerous results or obstacle such as fire, electric shock. And the danger and obstacle can be prevented by testing the electrical appliances.

▍Who can apply for KC certification：

All legal persons or individuals both at home and abroad who are engaged in manufacturing, assembly, processing of electrical appliance.

▍Scheme and method of safety certification：

Apply for KC certification with product’s model that can be divided into basic model and series model.

In order to clarify model type and design of electrical appliances, an unique product name will be given according to its different function.

▍ KC certification for Lithium battery

1.  KC certification standard for lithium battery：KC62133:2019
2. Product scope of KC certification for lithium battery

A. Secondary lithium batteries for use in portable application or removable devices

B. Cell is not subject to KC certificate whether for sale or assembled in batteries.

C. For batteries used in energy storage device or UPS (uninterruptible power supply), and their power which is greater than 500Wh are beyond the scope.

D. Battery whose volume energy density is lower than 400Wh/L comes into certification scope since 1^st, Apr. 2016.  

▍Why MCM?

● MCM keeps a close cooperation with Korean labs, such as KTR (Korea Testing & Research Institute) and is able to offer the best solutions with high cost performance and Value-added service to clients from the point of lead time, testing process, certification cost.

● KC certification for rechargeable lithium battery can be gained by submitting a CB certificate and convert it into KC certificate. As a CBTL under TÜV Rheinland, MCM can offer reports and certificates which can be applied for conversion of KC certificate directly. And the lead time can be shortened if applying CB and KC at the same time. What’s more, the related price will be more favorable.

The National Institute of Technology and Standards of Korea officially released the KC 62368-1
standard through the 2021-0283 announcement today (the draft of KC62368-1 and the document for soliciting opinions were issued through the 2021-133 announcement on April 19, 2021), which replaces KC 60065, K 60950-1 and K 60950-22, and will be implemented today. The current three standards can be used until December 31, 2022 and be abolished afterwards. Products that are applied for with the current standards before then will still be valid for product conformity certification before the abolition.
Comment
It has been noticed that for this modification, many industry professionals have focused on the deletion of Chapter II of PI965 & PI968, while ignoring the description of the packaging requirements of Chapter I of PI 966 & PI969. According to the author’s experience, few customers use PI965 & PI968 Chapter II to transport goods. This method is not suitable for bulk transportation of goods, so the impact of deleting this chapter is limited.