I lent a Korean friend 20 million won while I lived in Seoul and he's stopped paying — I'm back in the US. Can I get it back from here?

It is enforceable, the messages you have are the contract, and a 16 million won balance is a claim Korean courts process on a routine, low-cost track. Your American lawyer is describing the cost of a US lawsuit against someone in Korea, which would indeed be pointless; the claim belongs in Korea, where the debtor and his assets are, and it is pursued from the US through counsel. The deadline is real — a personal loan claim generally prescribes ten years from the date repayment fell due, though shorter periods apply to some commercial debts — and his four repayments and his written promise both work in your favor on timing.

What this is under Korean law

A loan for consumption (소비대차, sobi daecha) under the Civil Act is formed by agreement and delivery; no writing is required. The transfer record proves delivery; his message setting the repayment schedule proves the agreement and its terms; the four repayments prove he treated it as a loan and acknowledged the debt. Courts see this evidence set constantly. The balance is due with statutory interest from the missed installments — 5% per year under the Civil Act, rising to the higher litigation rate once a claim is filed and served.

Prescription: the general period for a civil claim is ten years under Article 162 of the Civil Act; if his "business emergency" made this a commercial loan on his side, the five-year commercial period under Article 64 of the Commercial Act may apply. Each repayment and each written acknowledgment restarts the period. On your dates, you are well inside either.

The process from the US

A payment order (지급명령, jigeup myeongnyeong) is the tool: a written application with the transfer, the messages and a calculation, served on him by the court; if he does not object within two weeks, it is enforceable as a judgment without any hearing. If he objects, the case becomes an ordinary civil action for a sum of this size, largely on documents, with counsel appearing. Neither route requires your presence. A power of attorney (위임장, wiimjang), notarized and apostilled in the US, authorizes Korean counsel; a Korean bank account, or counsel's client account, receives payment.

His address: counsel can obtain it through the court for the purpose of service, and his resident registration through the proper channels once a claim exists. Not knowing where he lives is not an obstacle.

What he has

Before filing, counsel checks the public registers: real property in his name, his registered business and its status, vehicles. After a judgment, the court can order him to disclose assets (재산명시, jaesan myeongsi) and can direct inquiries to banks (재산조회, jaesan johoe). Enforcement then runs against salary, accounts, and property. A provisional attachment (가압류, gaapnyu) before filing is available where there is a risk he will move assets; a debtor who has gone quiet after acknowledging the debt is that risk.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not send him an angry message or a message that proposes a reduced amount; the first is useless and the second is evidence of a lower debt. Do export the entire message history with his repayment promise and the dates of each payment, and pull your bank record of the transfer and the four repayments. Sign the power of attorney; the apostille is the slow part. Let counsel send one letter of demand — many acknowledged personal loans are paid when a Korean law firm's letter arrives — and file the payment order if the deadline passes.

Practical insight

Foreign creditors write off Korean personal loans because they imagine a foreign lawsuit and because they never had a signed contract. Neither is the obstacle. The obstacle is time and silence: a debtor who is allowed to go quiet becomes a debtor with no assets, and an acknowledged debt that is never demanded is one a court is never asked about. The payment order costs little and works on a two-week clock; the letter that precedes it costs less.

Send us the transfer record and the messages and we can tell you what he owns and whether the letter or the order should go first — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Civil Litigation Team