SPF50+ PA++++ Is as High as a Korean Label Goes

Before December 2016, a sunscreen couldn’t be labeled PA++++ under Korean rules. The grade didn’t exist yet. That September, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced a fourth UVA grade, and one of the reasons it gave was lining up with Japan’s and China’s grading so Korean products could sell abroad more easily.

So when a whole shelf says SPF50+ PA++++, every bottle on it is telling you the same thing: it reached the top of both scales Korean labels allow. How far past the top it went, and how well it’ll protect you once it’s on your face, the label doesn’t say.

Both scales stop counting at the top

What people here call seonkeurim (선크림, “sun cream”) usually carries two ratings. SPF covers UVB, roughly 290 to 320 nanometers, and PA covers UVA, roughly 320 to 400. The ministry’s plainer version is that SPF is about the rays that turn skin red and PA is about the ones that turn it darker.

Neither one keeps counting forever. Under the ministry’s labeling guidance, an SPF below 50 is printed as the number, and anything at 50 or above is printed as 50+.

PA works in bands of a UVA protection factor. A factor from 2 up to 4 is PA+, 4 up to 8 is PA++, 8 up to 16 is PA+++, and 16 or higher is PA++++. So PA++++ covers everything from 16 up, the same way SPF50+ covers everything from 50 up, and the label can’t tell you how far past the line a product went.

The top of the SPF scale also isn’t where most of the blocking happens. A 2017 ministry summer guide said SPF around 30 already blocks about 95% or more of UV, and that the effect doesn’t rise much beyond that.

What the ministry says an ordinary day needs

In guidance from May 2024, the ministry said SPF15 with PA+ or higher is fine indoors or for short time outside, like a spring walk. For long exposure such as sports, it recommended SPF50+ with PA+++ or PA++++.

For beaches and pools, it pointed to naesuseong (내수성, “water resistance”) products, a label meaning the SPF keeps at least half its value after about an hour of going in the water and drying off, again and again.

The part I’d underline is reapplying. In long sun, the ministry suggests every two hours, and it warns that stick and cushion products may not give enough protection in one pass, so they should be applied several times. I think that sentence matters more than the fourth plus sign.

It also tells buyers to check that a product is recognized as a gineungseong hwajangpum (기능성화장품, “functional cosmetic”), which you can look up on the ministry’s drug safety portal.

The testing rules are changing

On August 19, 2026, the ministry put out a proposed revision that would let companies test sunscreen on PMMA plastic plates as well as on human skin, using ISO 23675 for SPF and ISO 24443 for PA. By its figures, a human test takes about a month and 6 million won, and the plate test about two days and 3.5 million.

The same proposal would state that SPF and PA can be printed or advertised only when a human test or a plate test backs them up. K-health’s write-up pointed out that the ministry hadn’t presented research directly comparing how closely the two methods agree. Comments on the proposal are open until September 18, 2026.

None of that changes what a bottle on the shelf says today. The next bottle I pick up, I’m checking for the gineungseong hwajangpum line first, then how the texture feels, and the plus signs last.