SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jeena Kim, Kyunghwan Lee, Eunyoung Row and Bochan Kim, Bae, Kim & Lee LLC
9.2 Likely Changes to the Applicable Legislation of the Enforcement Body
information-gathering during the pre-investigative stage, and to ensure that cases proceed to formal investigations and result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions (including confiscation of bribery proceeds). Additionally, Korea must address key unimplemented recommendations, particularly regarding the statute of limitations for legal persons, legislation and enforce - ment on false accounting offences, and its anti- money laundering reporting framework. The Working Group also stressed that Korea needs to substantially increase its foreign bribery enforcement efforts. At the time of the Phase 4 review, the Working Group noted with concern the decline in Korea’s foreign bribery enforcement, with only two ongoing investigations and one trial. Two and a half years later, the Working Group observed limited progress. Overall, it was understood that Korea must intensify its enforcement efforts, ensure that cases progress to formal investigation and implement sanctions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
Pursuant to the amendment of the Government Organization Act dated 1 October 2025, the Prosecu - tor’s Office may be abolished and divided into two new agencies: the Office of Prosecutions under the Minister of Justice, and the Serious Crimes Investi - gation Agency under the Minister of the Interior and Safety. These changes were to establish a system that enables mutual checks and balances between investigative bodies (ie, the Serious Crimes Inves - tigation Agency with respect to nine categories of serious crimes, and the National Police Agency with respect to other crimes) and prosecutorial bodies (ie, the Office of Prosecutions). The amendment will take effect on 2 October 2026. Additionally, while not focusing on the anti-corruption context, several reform bills surrounding the restruc - turing of law enforcement bodies are actively being discussed in the Congress, with a view towards diver - sifying investigative agencies and procedures. Ongo - ing monitoring is required as the reform bills may be expeditiously passed due to the strong alliance of the current administration and the ruling party of the Con - gress.
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