Written by Attorney Soobin You — a former prosecutor licensed in Korea, now representing clients in criminal cases with consultations available in English.
Quick answer: A Korean police interview of a suspect is a formal, recorded procedure called 피의자신문, not an informal conversation. Before the first question, the officer must tell you that you may stay silent — entirely, or question by question — that silence cannot be used against you, that anything you do say may be used as evidence, and that you may have a lawyer present. What is written into the record at the end, the 조서, is what the prosecutor and later the court will actually read.
If you have already been arrested or are being held in custody, the timing rules are different and you should start with the first 48 hours after arrest and what to do first after an arrest. This guide is about the questioning itself — most often the situation where you have been asked to come in, have not been detained, and are trying to work out what will happen in that room.
Before a single question: four things you must be told
Article 244-3 of the Criminal Procedure Act requires a prosecutor or judicial police officer, before questioning a suspect, to inform that person of four things:
- that you may decline to make any statement at all, or decline to answer individual questions;
- that you will not suffer disadvantage for declining to speak;
- that a statement made after giving up the right to silence may be used as evidence of guilt in court;
- that you may have a lawyer participate in the questioning and otherwise receive a lawyer’s assistance.
The same article requires the officer to then ask whether you intend to exercise the right to silence and the right to counsel, to record your answer, and to have you confirm that answer in your own handwriting or by seal or signature. In practice this is a printed page at the front of the file. Read what it says before you sign it; it is a record of a decision, not a formality.
Silence is not all-or-nothing
The wording of Article 244-3 matters here. It covers refusing to make any statement and refusing to answer particular questions. You are not forced to choose between answering everything and saying nothing at all. In a case where some facts are uncontested and others are the whole dispute, that distinction is often the practical point.
That is a legal position, not a strategy. Staying silent has consequences of its own — it does not stop an investigation, and it does not stop a prosecutor from deciding on the evidence already collected. Whether silence helps in your case depends on what the investigators already have, and that is the judgement a defence lawyer is there to make.
A lawyer in the room is something you ask for
Under Article 243-2, on the application of the suspect, or of the suspect’s lawyer, legal representative, spouse, lineal relative or sibling, the prosecutor or judicial police officer must allow the lawyer to meet the suspect or to participate in the questioning, unless there is justifiable reason not to. Two things follow from that sentence, and foreign nationals routinely miss both.
The first is that participation is triggered by a request. Nobody in the room is obliged to suggest it to you at the moment you would most benefit from it. The second is that the exception — justifiable reason — is real, so the right is strong but not unconditional.
The same article lets a participating lawyer state an opinion after the questioning, raise an objection to an improper method of questioning even during it, and state an opinion during questioning with the officer’s approval. A lawyer’s recorded opinion is shown to the lawyer and signed by them. Article 243-2 also requires that the fact of a lawyer’s participation, and any restriction placed on it, be written into the interrogation record — which means a refusal leaves a trace on the file rather than disappearing.
The Presidential Decree on investigation procedure (검사와 사법경찰관의 상호협력과 일반적 수사준칙에 관한 규정, Article 13) goes further on the practical side: a lawyer who participates is to be seated where they can actually assist — beside the suspect, for example — and is permitted to take notes during the questioning.
If you are not completely comfortable in Korean
Article 180 of the Criminal Procedure Act provides that the statement of a person who is not conversant in the Korean language shall be interpreted by an interpreter. The provision is short, and the risk it is meant to address is not.
The most damaging pattern we see is not the person who speaks no Korean at all. It is the person who speaks conversational Korean, feels that asking for an interpreter looks uncooperative, and answers a legal question — about intent, about consent, about what they knew and when — in a language they are fluent in socially but not legally. That answer goes into the record in Korean, and it is that Korean sentence, not what you meant, that is read months later.
Two practical points. An interpreter is there to interpret, not to advise you, and is not your representative. And you are entitled to say that you did not understand a question and to ask for it to be put again — an answer to a question you misunderstood is worse for you than a pause.
When they can question you, and for how long
These limits sit in a Presidential Decree — the Regulation on Mutual Cooperation between Prosecutors and Judicial Police Officers and General Rules of Investigation — rather than in the Criminal Procedure Act. The article numbers below are that Decree’s, and they bind the investigators:
- Being called in (Article 19). When requesting your appearance, investigators are directed to consider whether an appearance is necessary at all and to have regard to your privacy and your livelihood in arranging it. That is a duty on them in setting the appointment, not a personal right to pick the date, but it is a legitimate basis for asking for a workable time rather than simply not turning up.
- No questioning at night (Article 21). Questioning between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. — whatever it is called, interview, interrogation or meeting — is prohibited, subject to defined exceptions.
- Length (Article 22). Total time is to be kept within 12 hours, and the questioning itself within 8, again subject to defined exceptions.
- Breaks (Article 23). Where questioning takes a substantial time, you are to be given at least 10 minutes of rest every 2 hours, absent special circumstances.
Do not read these as switches that void a case if they are crossed. They are standards governing how investigators must work, and a breach is a matter to raise — with your lawyer, on the record — not something that automatically undoes what was said.
The record is the case
Article 244 of the Criminal Procedure Act sets out what happens at the end. Your statement is written into a record. That record must be shown to you to read, or read aloud to you. You are asked whether there is anything wrongly written, and if you request an addition or a change, that request must itself be entered in the record. Only then do you seal across the pages and sign or affix your name and seal.
This is the part of the day that is most often given away. After several hours in a small room, with an officer waiting and a printer running, it feels rude to sit and read twenty pages line by line. But the interview ends and the document remains: the prosecutor deciding whether to charge you, and the judge who may later read it, work from this text and not from your memory of the conversation. Reading it slowly, and asking for a correction where a sentence does not say what you said, is the last point in the process where you still hold the pen.
Suspect or witness — the label changes what applies
The rights described above attach to questioning as a suspect. Being asked to attend as a witness or reference person is a different status with a different footing, and people are sometimes told they are simply helping with someone else’s case. Status can also change during an investigation as the evidence develops.
So the useful question when you are contacted is not only when and where, but in what capacity you are being asked to attend, and in relation to what suspected offence. You are entitled to ask, and the answer changes what the day is.
What foreign nationals most often get wrong
- Treating the first call as administrative. The first interview is frequently the single most important day in the investigation, and it happens long before any charge exists.
- Going in to “clear it up quickly”. Explaining yourself is not the same as being believed, and an early explanation that is later corrected is worse than a considered one.
- Declining an interpreter to appear cooperative. Cooperation is judged by conduct, not by which language you answer in.
- Assuming a lawyer can only come in after charges. The participation right in Article 243-2 applies to questioning at the investigation stage — which is exactly where it matters most. We have written separately on why the investigation stage is the point to instruct a lawyer.
- Signing the record to be polite. See above. It is the document, not the conversation, that travels.
When representation actually changes the outcome
Korean criminal cases are shaped early. By the time a decision to prosecute is made, the account in the file has usually been fixed by what was said in one or two interviews. A lawyer at that stage is not there to make speeches; the work is deciding what is answered and what is not, being present so that the questioning stays within its limits, and making sure the record reflects what was actually said before it is signed.
For foreign nationals there is a second layer: a criminal case can carry consequences for immigration status that are decided in a different process, on different rules, and are worth understanding before, not after. We cover that separately in how a criminal charge can affect your visa in Korea.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I have to attend if the police call me?
A: An appearance request is not the same as an arrest, and the Decree directs investigators to consider necessity and your circumstances when arranging it. Simply ignoring the request is a different matter and can change how the investigation proceeds. The practical answer is to establish in what capacity you are being asked to attend, and to take advice before the date rather than after it.
Q: Can I bring my own interpreter or a friend to translate?
A: Interpretation in the questioning is arranged as part of the procedure under Article 180, and a friend is not a substitute for it. If you are concerned about the interpretation, raise it during the interview and make sure the concern is recorded.
Q: Will asking for a lawyer make me look guilty?
A: Article 244-3 requires that you be told about the right to counsel before questioning begins, and Article 243-2 requires that participation be allowed on request unless there is justifiable reason. Exercising a right the statute obliges the officer to explain to you is not evidence of anything.
Q: I already gave an interview without a lawyer. Is it too late?
A: No. Investigations usually involve more than one step, and what has been recorded can still be addressed — through later statements, through submissions to the investigator or prosecutor, and through the evidence you put forward. It is harder than getting it right the first time, which is the reason to act now rather than later.
Q: Can I refuse to answer only some questions?
A: Article 244-3 expressly covers declining to answer individual questions as well as declining to make any statement. Whether that is the right approach in your case is a matter for advice on the facts.
This article is general information about Korean criminal procedure and is not legal advice. Outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case, and statutory provisions are subject to amendment. For advice on your situation, consult a licensed attorney.
Called in for questioning in Korea? Attorney Soobin You, a former prosecutor, represents foreign nationals from the investigation stage onward, in English, with offices in Seoul (Mapo) and Gyeongju. See police investigation support and criminal defence for foreigners in Korea, or start your case.