News & Insights

Most foreign companies that lose money on a Korean receivable do not lose it because Korean law failed them. They lose it because they spent four months exchanging polite emails while the debtor moved assets, and then discovered that the strongest tool in the Korean system is one you use before you sue. Check the clock — it may be shorter than you think Korean limitation periods are not uniform. The general civil period is ten years and the commercial period is five, but the

Foreign companies rarely get into trouble in Korea over the rules they researched. They get into trouble over the assumptions they carried in — most of which come from employment systems that work very differently. 1. There is no employment at will, and the written notice rule is absolute Dismissal in Korea requires justifiable cause. Poor performance is not, by itself, justifiable cause. Restructuring is not, by itself, justifiable cause. The employer must show a reason seri

You have won. The award or judgment is in hand, the assets are in Korea, and the question is how quickly you can convert paper into money. The answer depends almost entirely on a decision someone made years earlier, when the contract was drafted: arbitration or court. Arbitral awards: the fast track Korea has been a party to the New York Convention since 1973, subject to the reciprocity and commercial reservations. Korean courts are reliably pro-enforcement, and the grounds f

Every foreign company operating in Korea moves Korean personal data across a border. A global HR system, a cloud CRM, a group data warehouse, a support team in another time zone with read access to Korean customer records — each of these is a cross-border transfer under Korean law, and each requires a legal basis. As of 11 September 2026, getting this wrong costs considerably more than it did. What counts as a transfer is broader than you think The Personal Information Protec