The deregulation and structural reform of power markets have started from the early 90s, which has brought about new studies on the new environment. Regardless the market structure, however, power systems need to be operated and planned in a stable and reliable manner. Therefore, decisions on proper amount of operating reserves and their reliable operations are very important. Up to now, the decision processes of operating reserves depend mainly on experiences of operators in Korea. When Korean power market comes under private management, operating reserves would influence power rate as well as power Quality, Therefore, it is time to prepare reasonable operating reserve standards in a systematic way for the new environment. This study suggests the proper operating reserve standards considering rules of the power market in Korea. To verify the adequacy of the proposed standards, stability and frequency characteristics of the Korean power system are analyzed as well.