I kept messaging my Korean ex after she asked me to stop and now police say it's "stalking" — I'm on an E-7. Is that really a crime here?

Yes. What you describe is stalking under Korean law, which since 2021 has defined the offense by repeated unwanted contact against the other person's expressed will, without any requirement of threats. Repeated messages after two requests to stop, flowers to her workplace, and waiting outside her home are the exact conduct the statute lists. The measure the officers described is a court-supervised no-contact order, and breaching it — even by a "harmless" message — is a separate offense and the fastest route to detention. The range of outcomes for a first-time case with no threats, immediate compliance, and genuine remorse runs from a suspension of indictment to a fine; the way there is silence toward her and engagement with the process.

What this is under Korean law

The Act on Punishment of Stalking Crimes (스토킹처벌법, seutoking cheobeol-beop) defines stalking as repeatedly, against the other person's will and without justification, approaching or following them, waiting near their home or workplace, or sending messages or objects, in a way that causes anxiety or fear. Any of those acts, repeated, is enough; there is no requirement of threats or of an intention to frighten. The offense carries up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 30 million; with a weapon or dangerous object, up to five years. Since a 2023 amendment, the offense is prosecutable regardless of the victim's wishes — a settlement (합의, hapui) no longer ends the case, though it remains relevant to the outcome.

Your two explicit requests to stop are the "against her will" element; the apartment building visit is the act the court will weigh most heavily.

The measures

Police may take emergency measures (긴급응급조치, gingeup eunggeup jochi) on the spot: an order to stay 100 meters from the victim and her home and workplace and to cease electronic contact. They then seek the court's confirmation, and the prosecutor may apply for provisional measures (잠정조치, jamjeong jochi) from the court, which can include the same prohibitions, electronic monitoring, and — in serious or repeated cases — detention for up to a month. A violation of the emergency measure is punishable by a fine and, of a provisional measure, by imprisonment of up to two years. That is the answer to "by accident": there is no accidental contact. Block her number so that you cannot reply reflexively; do not view her social media; do not ask mutual friends to relay anything; do not go anywhere near the two addresses.

How the process works in Korea

You will be summoned for a suspect interview. The police will have her statement, the messages, the flower delivery record, and any building CCTV. They refer the case to the prosecutor (송치, songchi); the prosecutor decides between indictment, a summary fine, and a suspension of indictment (기소유예, giso yuye), often with a condition of completing a stalking-prevention program. First-time cases without threats, with full compliance from the day of the emergency measure, are frequently resolved without a trial. Cases that go badly are ones with a breach of the measure, or a suspect who argues with the police about whether it "counts."

Your situation as a foreign national

A departure suspension (출국정지, chulguk jeongji) is possible; confirm before travel. You are entitled to an interpreter at the interview. A conviction, including a fine, is a fact the Immigration Office may consider at renewal and in status review; stalking sits in the category of offenses against a person, and the Immigration Office weighs those seriously, though a suspension of indictment is not a conviction. Those decisions are the Immigration Office's; we do not predict them. Your employer is not notified by the police; a provisional measure does not name your workplace unless the victim works there. MEGA X handles the criminal case; where it affects your status, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of your defense.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not contact her, in any form, for any reason, including to apologize; every apology is another act. Do not delete the messages — they are already in her phone, and deletion reads as concealment. Do preserve them yourself, in order, with dates, including her two requests to stop; the record of what you sent and when is your case as well as hers. Do enroll voluntarily in a counseling or stalking-prevention program this week and keep the enrollment record. Prepare your account with your lawyer before the interview, and understand that the account is not a defense of the conduct but an explanation of it, and evidence that it has ended.

From a former police investigator's perspective

Stalking files are sorted by two facts: whether the suspect stopped the day the measure was served, and whether the conduct escalated. A man who sent forty messages and stood outside a building once, and then went silent the day the police came, is a file the prosecutor can resolve with a program condition. A man who sent one more message "to explain" after the measure is a file with a breach on it, and breaches are treated as evidence that the measure is necessary — which is the path to a provisional-measure detention. The single most important thing you can do for your case is nothing at all, toward her, from today.

Contact us before the summons — text consultation or +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Criminal Defense Team