Start with the current stage of your criminal complaint
After reporting fraud, embezzlement or another offense in Korea, a police non-referral notice or prosecutorial non-prosecution notice raises an immediate practical question: which document should be filed, where, and by what date?
Police objections and prosecutorial appeals have different legal grounds, starting events and eligibility requirements.
This calculator uses the procedural stage and actual notice receipt to display the next filing schedule, days remaining and preparation checks.
Appeals against court judgments are a separate procedure.
The seven-day filing and 20-day grounds periods for court appeals do not automatically apply to an investigation-stage complaint.
This tool does not determine guilt, sentence, prospects of success, legal standing or completed lawful receipt.
Korea-specific rules and transitional provisions
Rules were checked on 2026-10-19, using the main effective rule set of 2026-10-02.
Some judicial-review standing and jurisdiction changes are deferred to 2027-02-05.
The calculator therefore distinguishes the effective text from already promulgated future amendments and checks notice, acceptance and investigation commencement separately.
Compare three months, 30 days and 10 days
These periods are not cumulative grace periods available to everyone.
Select the notice you actually received and the procedure available at that stage.
A person entitled to judicial review does not also receive a further 30-day prosecutorial appeal as an alternative.
Investigation-stage remedies, ordinary periods and starting events| Current procedure | Basic period | Starting event |
|---|
| Police non-referral objection | 3 months | Actual receipt of a notice covered by the new rule |
| Prosecutorial non-prosecution appeal | 30 days | Actual receipt of the non-prosecution notice |
| Judicial review after appeal rejection | 10 days | Actual receipt of rejection, with judicial-review standing |
| Further prosecutorial appeal | 30 days | Rejection or the verified trigger after three months undecided |
| Superior-agency review of investigation delay | 14 days | Receipt of action notice or the day after the agency period expires |
What the dates and evidence states mean
Notice issue versus receipt
The police notice issue date determines whether the new transitional deadline applies.
Actual receipt anchors the three-month count.
Do not substitute the decision date or dispatch date for receipt; retain the envelope, delivery record or electronic receipt evidence.
Forwarding versus prosecutorial receipt
Police forwarding of records and evidence anchors the agency notice target and possible extension cap.
Prosecutorial receipt of referral or forwarded records anchors a separate charging-decision target.
Neither automatically equals receipt of a non-prosecution notice.
Complainant versus accuser
A person who filed a complaint with legal standing and an accuser reporting an offense can have different rights.
Check the recorded role, complaint entitlement and direct interest.
An unverified role withholds the next filing date rather than guessing eligibility.
Verified, scenario or unverified
Choose verified after checking documents, scenario when comparing planned dates, and unverified when evidence is missing.
Scenario dates remain references and unverified evidence withholds filing results.
Days remaining are calendar days between the entered reference date and the displayed endpoint.
Police objection: three months and approved extensions
Criminal Procedure Act Article 245-7(3) provides three months from receipt of the notice.
Supplementary Article 7 of Act No 21857 applies the new limit to notices given under Article 245-6 after the effective date.
A police notice issued on 2026-10-01 but received on 2026-10-06 does not receive the new deadline merely because receipt followed implementation.
Earlier cases require separate review of historical standing, procedure and limitation; no unlimited right to object is established.
Three calendar months is not 90 days
The trigger day is excluded, and months use the corresponding calendar date, or the final day of the target month when no corresponding day exists.
Receipt on 2026-10-06 under the new rule gives an unadjusted endpoint of 2027-01-06.
This remains a reference until the other-year holiday calendar is verified.
As a calendar-arithmetic example, 2026-01-31 plus three months gives 2026-04-30; this example does not apply the amended law retroactively.
For a justified reason, the agency head may approve an extension within six months from forwarding the records.
A request alone does not extend the deadline, and the cap is not itself an approved deadline.
Enter the actual date in the approval document; a date before the basic deadline or beyond the unadjusted six-month cap requires correction.
Closed-day approval dates and cap interpretation require agency confirmation rather than automatic rollover beyond the cap.
Accusers must verify standing for a police objection
Being an accuser neither permits every objection nor excludes every objection.
Criminal Procedure Act Article 245-7(2) and Investigation Regulation Article 53-2(2) require examination of both the offense and the relevant direct interest or party relationship.
Selecting an offense label alone cannot establish eligibility.
- For the enumerated official-duty and obstruction offenses, check whether the reporting person was the counterpart of the relevant conduct: abandonment of duties, abuse of authority, unlawful arrest or confinement, assault or cruelty, election interference, and specified obstruction offenses.
- For distortion of law, publication of suspected facts, official-secret disclosure and false accusation offenses, check whether the accuser is a party to the relevant case.
- For perjury, aggravated perjury, and false expert assessment, interpretation or translation, check the relationship to the relevant litigation.
- For document offenses, examine the document name holder, party to the litigation where it was submitted, or counterpart to its use.
- Other offenses protecting national or social interests still require examination of direct disadvantage to the accuser; aggravated punishment under another statute must also be checked.
Choose confirmed eligibility only after comparing the actual relationship with the regulation.
Police-objection standing is separate from judicial-review standing, so the calculator keeps those confirmations independent.
Non-prosecution appeal: 30 days from notice receipt
Public Prosecution Service Act Article 57(1) allows a complainant or accuser challenging non-prosecution to appeal in writing within 30 days after receiving notice.
Check submission through the district prosecution office or branch to the regional prosecution chief.
Do not replace notice receipt with the decision date or the later date of inspecting records.
Resolve conflicting evidence about receipt before relying on a schedule.
Exceptional relief requires a separate decision
Article 57(4) addresses a demonstrated cause without fault and a period starting when that cause ends.
Article 57(5) provides an exception involving demonstrated important newly discovered evidence.
A passed date alone does not prove that every remedy is unavailable.
Conversely, describing a reason or preparing additional material does not guarantee relief; review the basic-period reference separately with the authority or a qualified professional.
After rejection: judicial review or further appeal
A person entitled to judicial review under Criminal Procedure Act Article 260 generally files the application with the district prosecution chief or branch chief within 10 days after receiving rejection.
Public Prosecution Service Act Article 57(3) excludes people entitled to judicial review from further prosecutorial appeal.
Do not select whichever deadline is longer.
Only a confirmed person unable to seek judicial review uses the separate 30-day further appeal through the regional prosecution office to the Prosecutor General.
Appeal remains undecided for three months
Verify the absence of a decision and enter an authority-verified trigger date.
Without that date, the tool assumes the day after three calendar months and treats the following 10-day or 30-day schedule as a reference.
For an appeal filed on 2026-10-06, the three-month endpoint is 2027-01-06, the estimated trigger is 2027-01-07, and the 10-day endpoint is 2027-01-17, rolling past the weekend to the reference date 2027-01-18.
Verify other-year holidays and the actual legal trigger.
Reopened after an appeal, then no prosecution again
Article 260(2)(1) concerns renewed non-prosecution after reopening following an appeal.
Check the preceding appeal record and actual renewed notice receipt.
Do not use this ten-day route for every first non-prosecution notice.
Unknown judicial-review standing withholds the choice rather than automatically selecting further appeal.
Impending limitation requires a verified expiry date
Article 260(2)(3) concerns no prosecution by 30 days before the limitation expiry.
Article 260(3) permits an application up to the day before expiry in this situation.
Enter a verified expiry accounting for suspension or interruption, rather than inferring it only from the offense name and date.
Judicial-review standing and the absence of prosecution also require separate confirmation.
Do not move a limitation boundary past expiry
For expiry on 2026-11-02, the 30-day reference opening date is 2026-10-03 and the conservative submission boundary is 2026-11-01.
That day is a Sunday, but the tool does not represent filing on or after 2026-11-02 as safe.
Confirm an earlier date and an available method of actual receipt with the authority.
This conservative limitation reference is excluded from verified ICS export and does not decide a legal limitation issue.
Investigation delay: six months, then 14 days and 14 days
The new Article 245-11 procedure applies under Supplementary Article 9 to investigations commenced on or after 2026-10-02.
Verify from the record that substantive investigation, such as examination of evidence, did not progress for at least six months without a justified reason.
Six months since reporting alone does not establish unlawful delay.
Other rights violations or unlawful investigation grounds should be checked separately; this inactivity calculator does not exclude those other grounds.
Agency action versus the applicant’s review period
The agency head must notify measures such as investigator replacement, progress and plans, or rights-protection measures within 14 days after receiving the objection.
If there is no action or the action is disputed, the separate 14-day superior-review period runs from actual action-notice receipt or the day after the agency period expires.
The first 14 days belong to the agency, rather than constituting a deadline for making the original objection.
A synthetic commencement date of 2026-10-02 gives a six-month reference review date of 2027-04-02.
An objection received on 2027-04-05 gives an agency endpoint of 2027-04-19; confirmed inaction produces a reference trigger of 2027-04-20 and a further 14-day unadjusted endpoint of 2027-05-04.
If an action notice was actually received on 2027-04-16, the subsequent unadjusted endpoint is 2027-04-30 instead.
All require other-year holiday verification; a last substantive investigation date is used only as a conservative review aid.
Agency processing targets are separate from your filing deadline
The three-month police completion / referral target under Article 238 and the three-month prosecutorial charging-decision target under Article 257 apply, under Supplementary Article 6, to complaints or accusations accepted after implementation.
Police use acceptance, while prosecutors use receipt of referral or forwarded records.
Without verified acceptance on or after 2026-10-02, the new targets are not automatically assigned.
The Article 245-6 notice within seven days after forwarding is another separate agency target.
A missed agency target does not automatically extend your appeal period or establish a right to prosecution, reinvestigation or compensation.
The output therefore separates agency and eligibility references from applicant filing dates.
Intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and holidays count within ordinary periods, while only an ordinary final endpoint rolls to the next non-holiday.
Caps and limitation references do not automatically use the same rollover treatment.
Step-by-step use and worked examples
- Select the notice stage and your role, then distinguish verified documents, scenarios and missing evidence.
Special statutes or additional periods withhold ordinary calculations.
- Enter actual receipt and add police issue date, preceding appeal or extension approval where relevant.
Correct conflicting event dates before interpreting the output.
- Compare the unadjusted endpoint and holiday movement and check other-year calendar requirements.
Do not treat an agency target or limitation reference as a confirmed filing date.
- Schedule record access, grounds and evidence preparation and verify office hours and completed receipt.
Save the review report as TXT or print it; export only verified ordinary filing dates to ICS.
Non-prosecution appeal example
Receipt on 2026-10-02 plus 30 days gives an unadjusted endpoint of Sunday 2026-11-01.
The 2026 calendar moves the schedule to 2026-11-02, 14 days after the reference date 2026-10-19.
Timely dispatch and completed agency receipt remain different facts.
Rejection example
Receipt on 2026-10-06 gives a 10-day judicial-review schedule of 2026-10-16 for an eligible person.
A confirmed accuser unable to request judicial review instead has a 30-day further-appeal schedule of 2026-11-05.
The same receipt date produces different procedures, rather than two interchangeable rights.
Practical use, access to records and limits
If a parent received mail and a family member read it later, use the lawful actual receipt date after checking the delivery evidence.
While an extension request is pending, keep the basic deadline separately.
After appeal rejection, check judicial-review standing before deciding the next procedure.
A general statement that the agency acted may differ from the actual receipt date of its action notice.
Article 245-12 permits an application for access or copying of investigation records for a police objection, subject to permitted scope, restrictions and conditions.
Other record-access procedures under Investigation Regulation Article 69 must also be distinguished.
Do not assume that requesting records stops a filing period.
Respect use restrictions and avoid unnecessary disclosure of records containing other people’s information.
Current judicial-review jurisdiction and deferred amendments
The Article 260(1) integrated text effective 2026-10-02 retains High Court jurisdiction and the accuser scope under Criminal Act Articles 123–126, including the Article 126 restriction on acting against the express wishes of the person whose facts were published.
The district-court jurisdiction change and expanded offenses have the separate scheduled effective date 2027-02-05, together with application and pending-case transitional rules.
Recheck the effective text for future cases and special procedures rather than treating this 2026 description as a final jurisdiction determination.
Frequently asked questions
Is there still no time limit for a police objection?
The new three-month limit depends on when police gave notice, so distinguish issue and actual receipt and separately review standing, procedure and limitation for earlier cases.
Can I replace three months with 90 days?
Use calendar months, the last day when a corresponding date is missing, and any applicable ordinary endpoint holiday adjustment, rather than substituting 90 days.
Does requesting an extension give me six months?
A request alone does not extend the period; distinguish the actual approved date from the six-month forwarding cap.
Do I have 30 days for judicial review after rejection?
The basic judicial-review period is 10 days, and eligible people are excluded from further prosecutorial appeal, so verify standing before using the relevant period.
What if I hear nothing after appealing?
Verify that the appeal remains undecided and confirm the trigger after three months, then distinguish judicial review within 10 days from further prosecutorial appeal within 30 days according to standing.
May I file the next day if the day before limitation is a holiday?
The tool does not guarantee filing after expiry and retains the preceding day as a conservative boundary, directing you to confirm an earlier available receipt date and method.
Does six months of investigation automatically permit a delay objection?
Check the commencement transition, unjustified substantive inactivity and actual agency action, and ask the authority separately about other rights-violation grounds.
Does a passed date mean every remedy is over?
Check causes without fault, important new evidence, approval documents and actual receipt records with the authority or a qualified professional instead of inferring final unavailability from a date alone.
Official sources and the next action
The National Law Information OPEN API was checked directly on 2026-10-19 for current search results, supplementary provisions and effective-date integrated text.
The rule set uses Criminal Procedure Act ID001671/MST290189, Public Prosecution Service Act ID015092/MST290007 and Investigation Regulation ID013871/MST290263, effective 2026-10-02.
Holiday regulation MST285779 was cross-checked with the KASA calendar and NEC election schedule, including Labor Day from 2026-05-01 and the national-holiday amendment from 2026-05-11.
Before filing, recheck transition facts, accuser standing, approval and relief grounds, actual receipt methods, temporary holidays and the relevant future-year calendar.
Case dates are not sent in action analytics, and calendar export uses a generic document title without personal names or case numbers.