Filing a Criminal Complaint From Abroad

You were defrauded, assaulted, stalked, or robbed in Korea — and now you are somewhere else, with screenshots, bank records, and a sense that nothing can be done from a distance. The distance is less of a barrier than it feels. Korean criminal procedure lets a victim set the process in motion through a representative, and most of what follows is written, not attended.

The instrument is the criminal complaint (goso) (고소): a victim’s formal request that the state investigate and punish. The framework is the Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법), together with the Criminal Act (형법) that defines the offences. One structural fact matters before anything else: as of October 2026, Korea separates investigation from prosecution — the police investigate; a prosecution office (공소청)decides whether to charge. This guide follows that sequence from a complainant’s chair abroad.

What decides these cases is the file you hand in on day one. We start there.

1. Who can file, and where the complaint goes

The victim of a crime may file a complaint (art. 223), and may do so through a representative (art. 236) — the provision that makes filing from abroad routine. A complaint is distinct from a report by a non-victim (gobal) (고발): the complainant has rights the reporter does not, including the right to object to a non-referral, so file as the victim where you are one.

Complaints are made in writing or orally to the police (art. 237). A separate Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (중대범죄수사청) handles a defined list of major offences — among them corruption, narcotics, and large economic crimes — but the everyday complaint of a foreign resident goes to a police station, and your representative files it there.

Two categories carry a clock. For offences prosecutable only on the victim’s complaint (친고죄), the complaint must be filed within 6 months of the day you learned who the offender is(art. 230). For offences that cannot be prosecuted against the victim’s expressed wish (반의사불벌죄) — ordinary assault and threats among them — your stated wish not to punish ends the case. Which category your facts fall into shapes both timing and settlement leverage, and is worth confirming before you file.

2. What a complaint must contain

A Korean complaint is a written document in Korean stating who you are, who the suspect is (as far as you know), what happened — when, where, how, and what was taken or done — and why it is a crime. Attached to it is the evidence: transfer records, messages, contracts, photographs, medical records. Evidence in another language goes in with a Korean translation; originals are kept available.

The practical standard is not legal eloquence but verifiability. An investigator reading a complaint from a person abroad wants dates that match bank records, screenshots with visible timestamps and account names, and a narrative that does not outrun the documents. Fraud cases in particular are decided on whether the file shows deception at the time of the deal — covered from the creditor’s side in Someone Owes You Money in Korea.

3. What happens after filing

1. 1

   Receipt and the complainant statement

   The police register the complaint and normally take a complainant statement. For a client abroad it is usually given through the complaint representative or in writing; some investigators still want your own account, in person or by video, on facts only you know.
2. 2

   Investigation — 3 months in principle

   The suspect is questioned, evidence gathered. The police are expected to decide within 3 months of receipt whether to refer the case; complex cases run longer, and a case left untouched for 6 months without good reason can be challenged.
3. 3

   Referral — or non-referral

   The police either send the case to the prosecution office or decide not to. A non-referral must be notified to you in writing within 7 days of the record being forwarded (art. 245-6) — the notice that starts your objection clock (section 4).
4. 4

   The charging decision

   The prosecution office decides whether to indict, and must notify you of its decision within 7 days (art. 258); you can demand written reasons for a non-indictment (art. 259).
5. 5

   Trial

   If charged, the case is tried. You are the victim, not a party — but you can be heard, apply for a compensation order (section 5), and settlement talks continue to matter to the outcome.

Settlement runs alongside every stage. A hapui (합의) with the suspect — compensation in exchange for your statement of non-punishment or leniency — ends a complaint-only or wish-dependent case and weighs heavily in any other; its mechanics and timing are the subject of Settlement (합의) in Criminal Cases. Note the one-way door: a complaint withdrawn before the first-instance judgment cannot be re-filed (art. 232) — so a withdrawal is signed when the settlement money has actually arrived, not when it is promised.

4. When the police or prosecutor say no

A police non-referral is not the end. As complainant you may object to the head of the police unit within 3 monthsof receiving the notice — extendable for good cause, but never beyond 6 months of the record’s forwarding — and the case must then be sent to the prosecution office (art. 245-7). The prosecutor, in turn, can require the police to reinvestigate.

A prosecutor’s non-indictment has its own ladder. First, an appeal within 30 days of the notice, filed through the prosecution office that decided and heard by the regional office above it (Public Prosecution Office Act art. 57). If that is rejected, a complainant may apply to the High Court within 10 days of the rejection notice for a judicial order to prosecute (Criminal Procedure Act art. 260). Each step is a written filing your representative makes; none requires you in Korea.

Every review step — objection, appeal, court application — is a document with a deadline; what you owe the process from abroad is a prompt decision each time a notice arrives.

Two supporting rights make the ladder usable from a distance. You can ask for reasons in writing (art. 259), and for access to the investigation record where it is needed for your objection — the material an objection is actually built from. And where a case simply stalls — no real investigative step for 6 months without good reason — you can raise it with the head of the investigating unit, who must respond within 14 days.

5. Getting money back inside the criminal case

A conviction does not transfer a won to you. Three routes do. The first is the compensation order (baesang myeongnyeong) (배상명령): for listed offences — theft, robbery, assault and injury, fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust, sexual offences, property damage, among others — the victim may apply within the criminal trial itself, up to the close of the second-instance hearing, and the court can order the defendant to pay damages in the judgment (Act on Special Cases Concerning Expedition of Legal Proceedings art. 25). It is cheap and fast, but limited to amounts the trial record makes clear; disputed or complicated losses are sent back to the civil track.

The second is the settlement in section 3 — in practice the most common way money returns. The third is the civil claim, which outlives the criminal case: the recovery tools in Enforcing a Judgment apply to a fraud judgment as to any other, and a provisional attachment can freeze the suspect’s assets while the criminal case runs. Decide early which routes you will use; a complaint filed with no plan for the money is often a complaint that punishes and repays nothing.

6. What can be done from abroad — and what needs you in Korea

7. Common mistakes

• Missing the 6-month windowon a complaint-only offence while gathering “more” evidence. File on what you have; supplement later.
• A narrative without documents. Long emotional accounts with no timestamps or records are the complaints that stall. Build the file first.
• Using the complaint as a threat.“Pay or I’ll report you” can create separate legal problems for you and undermines the complaint itself. Decide on the facts, then file.
• Letting review deadlines pass. 3 months, 30 days, 10 days — each notice starts a clock, and a client abroad who reads mail late loses the step.
• Withdrawing on a promise. The withdrawal is final; the money must be in your account first.

Start by fixing two dates — when the harm happened, and when you learned who did it — and by collecting every record with a timestamp. The rest of the process is built on those.

Frequently asked questions

Written by Attorney Chulho Choi (SOL & LUNA / Law Firm Myeong, KBA-registered specialist in Civil and Criminal Law). Reviewed as of October 2026. Updated when laws change.