국가안보 차원의 외국인직접투자 규제-한국과 미국의 관련 규제의 비교 고찰-

Korean government introduced foreign investment regulations enabling restrictions against foreign investment based on national security concerns by amending the Presidential Decree of the Foreign Investment Promotion Act. This is the outcome of the administration's partial acceptance of demands from business groups and parliament for a law to protect Korea's key industries from hostile foreign merger and acquisition attempts. This paper explores the nature of Korea's regulations of foreign direct investment on national security grounds by comparing with the U.S. regulations. While the U.S. regulates foreign investment under broad concept of national security, including transactions on critical infrastructure and transactions involving foreign government- controlled entities, Korea‘s regulations apply only to the transaction cases in industries closely related to military security. The structure of regulatory body and the process of review and investigation are also designed to minimize the negative effects discouraging foreign investment rather than to carefully scrutinize security concerns. Less restrictive nature of Korea's regulations can be explained by the fact that attracting foreign direct investment is a highly ranked policy agenda in Korea. It can be also linked to Korean government's willingness to comply with the obligations under international investment agreements. This paper concludes that regulating foreign direct investment on national security grounds has legitimacy only when real threat to security is posed. The regulations should not be abused for the purpose of only protecting local management control.