SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jeena Kim, Kyunghwan Lee, Eunyoung Row and Bochan Kim, Bae, Kim & Lee LLC
2.5 Intermediaries Bribery can occur through intermediaries. Arti - cle 130 of the Criminal Code provides that brib - ing a public official or an arbitrator who causes, demands or promises a bribe to be given to a third party on acceptance of an unjust solicita - tion in connection with their duties shall be pun - ished by imprisonment for not more than five years or with suspension of qualifications for not more than ten years. Article 133(2) also sets out that a person who, for the purpose of offering a bribe, delivers money or goods to a third party, or who receives such delivery with the knowl - edge of its nature, shall be punished as a briber. 2.6 Lobbyists South Korean law does not require registration or reporting of communications with public offi - cials or state-owned enterprises. Depending on the specific case, a statute of limitations of five to ten years typically applies, though if the amount of the bribe exceeds KRW100 million, a 15-year statute of limitations may apply. See Article 249 of the Criminal Pro - cedure Act. 3.2 Geographical Reach of Applicable Legislation The criminal laws of South Korea apply to the following persons. • Article 2 of the Criminal Code: anyone, 3. Scope of Application 3.1 Limitation Period including Korean nationals and foreign nation - als, who commit a crime within the territory of South Korea. This includes cases where any part of the criminal act takes place in
South Korea or its effects are felt within South Korea. • Article 3 of the Criminal Code: all Korean nationals who commit a crime outside the ter - ritory of South Korea. • Article 6 of the Criminal Code: Foreign nation - als who commit crimes outside the territory of South Korea against South Korea or its nationals. However, the criminal law of South Korea will not apply if the act does not con - stitute a crime or if prosecution or execution of the sentence is exempted under the law of the place where it was committed. 3.3 Corporate Liability In general, individuals can only be held liable for bribery if specific sentencing provisions apply to the circumstances surrounding the bribery. Directors and officers of a corporation are not automatically liable for bribery committed by their employees. However, if they consented to or approved the corrupt actions, they could be charged with conspiracy to commit bribery. The Graft Act, FBPA and certain industry-specific laws (eg, the Medical Devices Act, Pharmaceuti - cal Affairs Act, Framework Act on the Construc - tion Industry, and Housing Act) explicitly impose vicarious liability on corporations. Under these laws, a corporation can be criminally liable for bribery committed by its employees or agents. However, a corporation can avoid liability by proving it took adequate steps to supervise its employees. Vicarious liability applies to the corporation itself, meaning a successor entity can be held accountable for offences committed by the tar - get entity prior to a merger or acquisition.
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