What Happens After Korean Police Send My Case to the Prosecutor?

Short answer. It depends which of two routes the police took. Under Article 245-5 of the Criminal Procedure Act, where police find that an offence is made out they must send the case to the prosecutor without delay together with the documents and evidence. Where they do not, they send the documents and evidence with a written statement of reasons instead, and the prosecutor must return them within 90 days. The first route means your case is going forward for a charging decision. The second means the police did not consider the case made out.

What Korean law says

Article 245-5 provides that when a judicial police officer has investigated an offence, including complaint and accusation cases, the officer proceeds under one of two subparagraphs. Under subparagraph 1, where the officer finds there is a suspicion that an offence was committed, the case is transferred to the prosecutor without delay and the related documents and evidence are sent. Under subparagraph 2, in any other case the officer sends the documents and evidence without delay together with a written statement giving the reasons, and the prosecutor must return them to the officer within 90 days of receipt.

Criminal Procedure Act, Article 245-5. Act No. 21241, in force from 1 July 2026. A further tranche takes effect 2 October 2026.

What usually happens in practice

The two routes feel very different from the inside. If the case has been transferred for a charging decision, the prosecutor may call you in for a further interview, and the outcome will be a decision to prosecute, a summary indictment, or a decision not to prosecute. If the case went the other way, the prosecutor is reviewing the police reasoning rather than the case itself, and the 90-day figure is the outer limit for that review.

Either way this is not the end of the investigation, and it is not a moment to relax. Material that was not put in front of the police can still be put in front of the prosecutor, and for many cases that is the last practical opportunity to affect whether a charge is brought at all.

What you should do next

Find out which route your case took. That single fact tells you what stage you are at.
If a prosecutor interview is scheduled, treat it as more consequential than the police interview, not less.
Put mitigating or exculpatory material in before the charging decision, not after.
Keep your contact details current with the office handling the case.

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