Short answer. Sometimes, and it depends on who you are and who was affected. The Criminal Act applies to everyone, Korean or foreign, who commits an offence inside Korean territory (Article 2). It applies to Korean nationals who commit offences outside Korea (Article 3). For foreign nationals abroad it applies only in two narrow situations: a short list of offences against the Korean state (Article 5), and offences committed against Korea or against Korean nationals (Article 6), with an important limit in the latter case.
What Korean law says
Article 2: this Act applies to both Korean nationals and foreign nationals who commit an offence within the territory of Korea.
Article 3: this Act applies to Korean nationals who commit an offence outside the territory of Korea.
Article 5: this Act applies to foreign nationals who commit, outside Korea, any of the listed offences: insurrection; treason; offences relating to the national flag; offences relating to currency; offences relating to securities, stamps and revenue stamps; certain offences relating to documents under Articles 225 to 230; and certain offences relating to seals under Article 238.
Article 6: this Act applies to foreign nationals who commit, outside Korea, offences other than those listed in Article 5, against Korea or against Korean nationals. This is subject to a proviso: it does not apply where the act does not constitute an offence under the law of the place where it was committed, or where prosecution or execution of sentence there is exempted.
Criminal Act, Articles 2, 3, 5 and 6. Act No. 21450, in force from 13 September 2026.
What usually happens in practice
For most foreign nationals the operative provision is Article 6, and the proviso is the part that decides cases. It builds in a double-criminality style limit: if the conduct was not an offence where it happened, the Korean provision does not reach it. That is a real defence and it is written into the statute rather than left to discretion.
The more common real-world situation is not truly extraterritorial at all. Online conduct, money transfers and messages often have a Korean element that puts the case inside Article 2 rather than Article 6, and where the offence is treated as committed in Korea the analysis changes entirely. Establishing where the offence is said to have been committed is therefore the first question, not a technicality.
What you should do next
- Establish first where the conduct is said to have taken place. That decides which provision applies.
- If Article 6 is in play, check whether the conduct was an offence where it happened. The proviso matters.
- Do not assume distance protects you where the victim or the account was Korean.
- Take advice before travelling to Korea if you know an investigation exists.
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Written and reviewed by Soobin You, Attorney at YUSU Lawfirm. Former prosecutor. Last legal review: 12 September 2026.