Can I Contact the Complainant in a Korean Sex Crime Case?

Short answer. Not directly, and the instinct to explain yourself is the most common way a defensible case becomes an indefensible one. Contact intended to influence an account can be charged as intimidation under Article 283 of the Criminal Act or as coercion under Article 324, and repeated approaches can attract separate stalking liability. Contact about settlement is legitimate, but it is made through a lawyer, not by you.

What Korean law says

Article 283(1) of the Criminal Act: a person who intimidates another is liable to imprisonment for up to three years, a fine of up to five million won, detention or a minor fine. Article 283(3) makes the offence one that cannot be prosecuted against the victim’s express wishes.

Article 324(1): a person who, by violence or intimidation, obstructs another’s exercise of a right or causes another to do something they are not obliged to do, is liable to imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to thirty million won. Paragraph 2 raises the penalty where the offence is committed by showing the power of a group or while carrying a dangerous object.

Criminal Act, Articles 283 and 324. Act No. 21450, in force from 13 September 2026. Separate stalking legislation may also apply to repeated approaches; that assessment depends on the specific conduct.

What usually happens in practice

What people intend as an apology reads, in a file, as pressure. A message saying that you never meant it and asking the complainant to reconsider is simultaneously an approach to a witness, a possible admission, and evidence about your conduct after the offence, which is an express sentencing factor. It also hands the prosecution something contemporaneous and in your own words.

Indirect contact counts. Messages through friends or family, appearing where the person will be, and contact from a new account are all treated as contact, and the last of those looks worse than the original approach.

Settlement is the legitimate exception and it has a proper channel. Approaches made through a lawyer are recorded, framed carefully, and cannot easily be characterised as pressure. That is the whole reason the channel exists.

What you should do next

Stop all contact, including through other people, from today.
If you want to reach a settlement, instruct someone to do it for you.
Do not create new accounts or use a third party’s phone to make contact.
Keep any contact that has already happened and disclose it to your lawyer rather than hiding it.

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Written and reviewed by Soobin You, Attorney at YUSU Lawfirm. Former prosecutor. Last legal review: 12 September 2026.