Received a Police Summons

A phone call from an investigator, a text message, or a letter with a police logo — a police summons in Korea usually arrives as an attendance request (출석요구), and for a foreigner it lands with extra weight: an unfamiliar system, a language you may not read well, and no sense of how serious it is. The honest answer is that it is serious enough to prepare for, and routine enough not to panic over.

The summons means an investigation exists and the police want your statement. Under the Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법), investigators may ask a suspect (art. 200) or a person who is not a suspect — a reference witness — to appear and speak (art. 221). Which of those you are changes everything about how to prepare.

What matters is what you do between now and the interview. This guide walks through that window in order: what the summons is, what to find out, what your rights are in the room, and what happens after.

1. What a police summons is — and what it is not

An attendance request is part of voluntary investigation: you appear, answer questions (or decline to), and go home. It is not an arrest warrant, it does not mean charges have been filed, and it does not mean the police have decided anything. Many summonses end in the case being dropped.

Voluntary does not mean optional in the long run. If a suspect fails to comply with attendance requests without good reason — or seems likely not to — that refusal itself can support the issuance of an arrest warrant (art. 200-2). The practical rule: never simply ignore a summons. If the date is impossible, call the investigator and move it; rescheduling to prepare, or to arrange a lawyer or interpreter, is normal and unremarkable.

2. First: find out your status and the allegation

Call the number on the summons (or have your lawyer do it) and establish three things before anything else:

• Your status. Are you summoned as a suspect (피의자) or as a reference witness (참고인)? The words matter: a suspect interview follows the formal interrogation rules and is recorded in a suspect examination record; a witness interview is looser — but witnesses can become suspects, so the distinction is a starting point, not a guarantee.
• The allegation. Ask what offense (죄명) is under investigation and, in outline, what the complaint is about. You will not get the full file, but you are entitled to know what you are answering to.
• The practicalities. Which station and unit, how long to expect, and whether an interpreter will be arranged — raise the language question now, not at the door.

This call is also the moment to decide about representation. For a suspect interview in anything you could not comfortably explain to a judge later, going in without advice means making permanent statements about a system you don’t know, in a language you may not fully control.

3. Your rights at the interview

The Criminal Procedure Act builds several protections into a suspect interview, and they are practical tools, not formalities:

• The right to remain silent. Before questioning begins, the investigator must tell you that you may refuse to answer any or all questions, and that refusal cannot be used against you (art. 244-3). You may answer some questions and decline others.
• The right to have your lawyer present. A defense lawyer may sit in on the interrogation and object to unfair methods (art. 243-2). An interview with counsel present runs noticeably differently.
• The right to read and correct the record. The interview is written up as a suspect examination record (피의자신문조서). Before signing, you may read it (or have it read back through the interpreter), demand corrections, additions, and deletions, and your objections must be added to the record (art. 244). Take this seriously: the record, not your memory of the conversation, is what travels.
• Language help. In practice, investigative agencies arrange interpreters for foreign suspects — but confirm before the date that one is actually booked, and never sign a record you could not read. You may ask for time to go through it line by line.

One more right deserves its own line: you can leave. A voluntary interview is voluntary throughout — you are not detained, and you may stop the interview to consult your lawyer. Investigators know these rules well; asserting them calmly does not antagonize anyone, and the record will show you exercised rights the law explicitly gives you.

4. How to prepare

A written timeline built from your own records — messages, transfers, photos — is worth more at an interview than any amount of on-the-spot explaining.

• Reconstruct the facts on paper first. Dates, places, who said what, in what order — anchored to objective records: chat logs, transfers, receipts, photos. Interviews reward people who know their own timeline cold.
• Decide what you don’t know.“I don’t remember” is a legitimate answer; a guessed answer becomes a recorded statement you must live with. Never guess to be helpful.
• Choose evidence deliberately. Bring what supports your account; you are not obliged to volunteer your whole phone. What to hand over — and when — is a judgment call worth making with advice.
• Tell the truth.The investigator has usually seen the complainant’s evidence before meeting you. A provable lie damages you more than the underlying facts usually would.
• Plan the language logistics. If you will use the interpreter, practice saying your key points in short, plain sentences — interpretation degrades long, hedged answers. If your Korean is functional but not fluent, decide in advance which language you will testify in and stick to it; switching mid-interview breeds transcription errors that end up in the record.

5. What happens after the interview

1. 1

   The police complete their investigation

   Further interviews, records, forensics. Weeks to months, depending on the case.
2. 2

   The police decide: send up, or close

   With suspicion established, the case is sent to the prosecution (송치); otherwise the police may close it themselves with a non-referral decision (불송치) (art. 245-5).
3. 3

   A closed case can be revived

   The complainant is notified and may object, which sends the case to the prosecutor after all (arts. 245-6, 245-7). A police closure is good news, not final news.
4. 4

   The prosecutor decides

   Indict for trial, seek a summary (fine) order, or decline to prosecute — including conditional non-prosecution outcomes.

Expect the whole arc to take months rather than weeks, and expect long silences — a quiet file is normal, not ominous. If the case does go to the prosecution, the interview record you signed at the police station travels with it and is usually the first thing read. That is why this guide spends more words on preparation than on anything else: the cheapest moment to shape your case is before your first recorded sentence, not after.

Two levers matter throughout this timeline. The first is the quality of the record you left at the interview. The second, in cases with a victim, is settlement (합의) — a private agreement with the complainant that Korean practice weighs heavily at every decision point. How and when to pursue one is its own subject, covered in Settlement (합의) in Criminal Cases.

6. Common mistakes

• Going in “just to clear things up” with zero preparation. The interview record is permanent; casual answers get treated as considered statements.
• Signing a record you did not fully read. Corrections after signature are far harder than corrections before it. Use art. 244 while it is still cheap.
• Contacting the complainant directly. Reaching out to the person who reported you — even to apologize — can be read as pressure and create separate legal problems. Settlement approaches are safer made through counsel.
• Talking about the case publicly. Posts and messages about the investigation are discoverable and quotable. Say it to your lawyer, not your group chat.
• Treating a witness summons as nothing. Witnesses can become suspects. If your honest account of events includes anything that could implicate you, get advice before the interview, not after it.

Frequently asked questions

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