Microsoft could be forced to stop selling Windows in South Korea within six months, after the country's trade commissioners ordered the removal of parts of the operating system software. 

The company told vnunet.com that, based on its current understanding, it would not obey the ruling because it does not comply with Korean law and Microsoft strongly believes it will be overturned on appeal.

In a stinging rebuke, antitrust regulators said today that Microsoft abused its dominant market position, drove competitors out of the market and hurt consumers.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) gave Microsoft 180 days to remove media and messaging applications from its Windows desktop operating system and Windows Server products sold in the country. 

Microsoft had previously warned that it may be unable to comply, but today backtracked from that position. However, when European authorities requested similar action from the software company in 2004, it took Microsoft more than a year to complete the changes.

"We will not start to implement the changes," said Oliver Roll, Microsoft's Asia-Pacific region general marketing manager. "We will ask for a stay, and appeal to the Seoul high court."

Roll said he was confident that the appeal would succeed, but noted that Microsoft had not yet received a written version of the commission's findings.

Roll added that the requested changes did not seem to be as severe as the company had feared and would probably not force Microsoft to withdraw Windows from the Korean market as it had warned in October.

However, he conceded that, if the ruling does come into force, new product introductions could be delayed while Windows is altered.

It appears that, should this delay extend past six months, as it did in Europe, Microsoft could be left without a legal version of the Windows desktop or server OS for the Korean market.