Korean government's support for biotechnology field began in early 1980's. The main aim was economic growth through the application of biotechnology. Ministry of Science and Technology included genetic engineering as one prominent field in the Development Plan for Economy and Society(1982-1986), and National Assembly established Genetic Engineering Support Act in 1983. Ten years later, the overall ministries started to promote biotechnology in the name of Biotech 2000, and the main aim was still economic growth. But the substantive contents of Biotech 2000 were some distance from the aim of it, and all the more became weak in comparison with the situation in early 1980's.
This article showed that the scientists who were involved in the process of biotechnology policy formation had a decisive effect to the trend of governmental strategy. At first the scientists chose the genetic engineering field intentionally for persuading governmental officials to be worth money. Afterwards they tried to change the name of the field from genetic engineering to biotechnology because they wanted to be supported more broadly. There was some disagreement about the range of support within scientists group when they acted to make the Act. This led the uncommon definition of the field 'genetic engineering' through a compromise among scientists. This study would help to understand the characteristics of early biotechnology field in Korea, and suggest the necessity of examining how much the opinion of scientists group has influenced the governmental policy until recently.