Provisional Attachment (가압류)

The hardest moment in a Korean money dispute is the gap between knowing you are right and holding a judgment that says so. Months can pass between the two — and a debtor who sees the claim coming can spend that gap emptying accounts, selling the car, or moving the deposit. If you win on paper and there is nothing left to take, you have won nothing.

The tool built for that gap is the provisional attachment (gaapryu) (가압류) — a court order under the Civil Execution Act (민사집행법) that freezes specific assets of the debtor while the main case is prepared or fought. Frozen property cannot be effectively sold or paid away against your claim; it waits for the judgment.

What decides these applications is speed and paperwork, in that order. This guide covers what you must show, what it costs, how the procedure runs — and, because many readers arrive from the other side, what to do when it is your account that was suddenly frozen.

1. What a provisional attachment does

A provisional attachment secures the future enforcement of a money claim — or a claim convertible into money — against the debtor’s movable and immovable property (Civil Execution Act art. 276(1)). The claim does not even have to be due yet: a conditional or not-yet-matured claim can support one (art. 276(2)). What the order does in practice is simple: the bank blocks the account balance up to the attached amount, or the property register records the attachment so any later buyer takes subject to your claim.

Two features make it work. First, the court may decide the application without any oral hearing (art. 280(1)) — the debtor is not asked. Second, the freeze can be executed before the order is even served on the debtor (art. 292(3)). Surprise is not a side effect; it is the design. An attachment announced in advance would protect nothing.

Understand equally what it is not. A provisional attachment pays you nothing and decides nothing about who is right — it only holds assets still while the ordinary machinery runs. The map of that machinery, from demand letter to court title to enforcement, is in Someone Owes You Money in Korea; the attachment is the step you take first when assets might not wait for it.

2. What you have to show the court

Two elements, both stated in your written application (art. 279). The first is the claim itself: what is owed, by whom, and on what basis. The second is the need for preservation — grounds to fear that without the freeze, a later judgment could not be enforced or only with great difficulty (art. 277). A debtor listing their apartment for sale, winding down a business, dodging contact after promising payment, or juggling several pressing creditors is the kind of picture courts look for.

The standard of proof is deliberately lighter than at trial. You need somyeong — a prima facie showing (소명): documents that make the claim and the risk plausible, not certain. Loan agreements, bank transfer records, invoices, KakaoTalk messages acknowledging the debt, a screenshot of the property listing — the same paper record that will later win the main case is assembled here first, in condensed form.

As for targets, anything enforcement could later reach can usually be frozen: real estate, cars, bank deposits, a tenant’s jeonse deposit held by their landlord, business receivables, wages. Two cautions. Some assets are partly or wholly exempt from seizure — notably, half of wage-type income is protected, with a higher floor for low incomes set by presidential decree (art. 246(1)). And the choice of target drives the security deposit in the next section, so it is a strategic decision, not a formality.

3. What it costs: the stamp and the security deposit

The court fees are almost symbolic: a ₩10,000revenue stamp on the application regardless of the claim’s size, plus a small advance for service of documents. The real number is the security.

Because the debtor is frozen without being heard, the court conditions the order on you securing the debtor’s potential loss (art. 280(2)–(3)). In standard practice the security for a real-estate attachment (also cars, construction machinery, small ships) can be provided as a surety-insurance bond of 1/10 of the claim amount — a policy premium, not cash out. For monetary claims such as ordinary bank accounts, the pre-approved bond route covers 2/5 of the claim; wage claims and business bank accounts sit outside that scheme, and the court sets security for them case by case — it may order a cash deposit instead.

The security is not a fee. When the matter ends — you win, settle, or release the attachment — a security-cancellation procedure returns the deposit or ends the bond. It exists to answer for the debtor’s damage if the freeze turns out to have been unjustified, which is also why the next number matters: what you freeze, and for how much, should match what you can prove. Costs of the main lawsuit itself are a separate subject, covered in What Litigation Costs.

4. The procedure, start to finish

1. 1

   File the application

   In writing, at the district court where the asset sits or the court that would hear the main case (art. 278) — stating the claim, the preservation grounds, and the documentary showing for both (arts. 277, 279).
2. 2

   Provide the security

   The court fixes the security and the method — cash deposit or surety-insurance bond (art. 280). For standard targets the bond route above applies; the order issues once security is in place.
3. 3

   The order issues — without a hearing

   The court decides on the papers (art. 280(1)). The debtor is not notified of the application and has no opportunity to object beforehand.
4. 4

   Execute within 2 weeks

   The freeze must be put into effect within 2 weeks of the order being notified to you (art. 292(2)): registration against real estate, an order served on the bank for deposits. Execution may precede service on the debtor (art. 292(3)).
5. 5

   Fight the main case

   The attachment holds the assets while the ordinary route runs — payment order or lawsuit, then enforcement against the frozen property once you hold a final title.

An attached account is blocked up to the claimed amount — the debtor keeps whatever sits above it, and exempt income stays protected even inside it.

Note what the sequence implies for tactics. A demand letter is normally the cheap first step of debt recovery — but it also warns the debtor. Where the preservation risk is real, the attachment comes first and the demand letter after, once there is nothing left to move.

5. If it’s your account that was frozen

Many foreign residents meet this procedure from the receiving end: the bank app stops working, the branch mentions a court document, and nothing arrived in advance. That is, as section 1 explained, how the procedure lawfully works — but being frozen without a hearing is the beginning, not the end, of your rights. Four tools exist, and they can be combined.

Objection (ui-i sincheong) (이의신청). You can ask the court that issued the order to reconsider it with both sides heard, arguing the claim or the preservation need was never there (art. 283). There is no fixed deadline, though the objection alone does not suspend the freeze while it is decided.

Order to sue. You can force the creditor’s hand: on your application, the court orders them to file the main lawsuit within a set period of at least 2 weeks and prove it. If they let the period pass, the court must cancel the attachment on your application (art. 287). A creditor using a freeze as pure pressure, with no intention of litigating, tends to be exposed here.

The release deposit. Every attachment order must state a sum — the release amount (gaapryu haebang geum-aek) (가압류해방금액) — that you can deposit with the court to lift the execution from the frozen asset (art. 282). The dispute then continues over the deposited money instead of your account, which can matter when the frozen asset is the one you live from.

Cancellation for changed circumstances. If the grounds fall away, if you provide court-set security, or if 3 years pass after execution without the creditor filing the main case, you can apply to have the attachment cancelled (art. 288(1)). And if the creditor ultimately loses the main case, the freeze they obtained can ground a damages claim of your own — the security they posted exists to answer for exactly that.

6. Common mistakes

• Warning the debtor first.A demand letter or an angry message announcing “I’ll freeze everything” is a head start for exactly the asset movement the attachment exists to prevent. Sequence matters: freeze, then talk.
• Treating the freeze as the victory. An attachment collects nothing and decides nothing. Creditors who stop after the freeze discover the 3-year cancellation — and hand the debtor a damages argument.
• Freezing more than the proof supports. Attaching every account and the apartment for a thinly documented claim invites the objection procedure, raises the security, and enlarges your exposure if the main case falters.
• Missing the 2-week execution window. The order is perishable: execution more than 2 weeks after it was notified to you is barred (art. 292(2)), and the work must be redone.
• Ignoring exemptions. Freezing a salary account does not reach the protected half of wage income (art. 246(1)) — plan the recovery around what is actually seizable, not the headline balance.

Start from the asset you are worried about — the account, the property, the deposit — and work backwards: what can be shown on paper today, and what security would the freeze require. Those two answers decide whether this tool fits your case.

Frequently asked questions

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