Secretly filmed in Korea: what can I do as a foreign victim?

Report it, and do it in your own language if you need to. Korean law treats a sexual image of your body taken without your agreement as a serious offence, with a maximum of seven years' imprisonment or a 50 million won fine, and spreading it is punished just as hard, even when you once agreed to the recording. Anyone who keeps, buys or watches it also commits a crime. Your visa type plays no part in whether the police take the case, an interpreter can be brought in for your statement, and there is public help for getting images off the internet. Half-remembered details are enough to start.

What counts as illegal filming?

The law looks at whether the person filmed agreed, not at where it happened or who held the camera. Some examples:

Situation	Offence and maximum
A hidden camera in a toilet, changing room, guesthouse or your own room	Filming against your will (불법촬영); 7 years' prison or a 50 million won fine at most
Someone photographed or filmed your body on the street, on the subway or at a party	Covered too, if the images can cause sexual shame
A partner recorded you with your agreement, then sent the file to others	Sharing without your agreement, punished like the filming itself
Your face was edited into sexual material, for example with AI	A separate crime for making or spreading the edited material (허위영상물)
People in a chat room saved or watched the file	Keeping or watching it is itself an offence, with a 3 year or 30 million won ceiling
The footage was sold or posted online for money	At least 3 years in prison, with no fine option

You do not have to work out which row fits. The investigator decides the charge.

I just found a camera or saw someone filming me. What first?

Your safety comes before evidence. If the person is still nearby and you feel safe, tell staff or people around you and call the police; do not try to grab a phone by force.

• Leave a hidden device where it is. Photograph its position from a distance, and note the address, room number and time. The police can take it, along with anything the owner hands over voluntarily.
• Write down what you saw while it is fresh: the person's clothes, the phone model if you noticed it, which way they walked.
• Keep receipts and bookings. A hotel booking, a taxi receipt or a card payment shows where you were and when.
• Ask a friend to stay with you. Being alone in a police station in a foreign country is hard, and you are allowed company.

How do I give a statement if my Korean is weak?

Tell the officer at the very start that you need an interpreter, and name your language. Officers are allowed to bring one in during the investigation, and once the case reaches court, interpretation is compulsory for anyone who cannot follow Korean. A friend who speaks Korean is valuable as support, but a neutral interpreter protects your statement better, because the defence cannot later claim your friend shaped your words.

Victims of illegal filming have a stronger right than many other victims to bring someone they trust into the room. On your request, that companion is to be admitted to the interview and to the courtroom, except where it would genuinely obstruct the hearing or where the companion is not acting in your interest. Mention it when the interview is being scheduled, not on the day.

Ask for the written record to be read back through the interpreter before you sign. If a sentence is wrong, say so then.

Does it matter that I am a foreigner without a long visa?

Not for the criminal case. The offender is the one under investigation, and your nationality does not change what was done to you.

If your stay is running out, the case itself can help. While police or a court are still dealing with what was done to you, immigration may grant a longer stay, so take your report receipt to the immigration office when you apply. Visitors with no valid status worry most about the police passing their details on. The general rule obliges officials to tell immigration about people without status, yet an officer handling a Sexual Crimes Act case may set that aside if helping you matters more. Nobody can guarantee how that discretion will be used, so if your status is irregular, raise it with a lawyer before you walk into the station.

How do I get the footage taken down?

Do not wait for the trial. Removal and prosecution run side by side.

1. Make a list of every link, with the site name and the date you saw it. Take screenshots of the page that show the address, but do not download or forward the video itself.
2. Give the list to the police. When an officer sees the posts for themselves, the law requires a removal or blocking request to go out to the site and to the national review body without delay, and you should be told how that works.
3. Contact the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center (디지털성범죄피해자지원센터). This public centre helps victims search for copies and request removal, and keeps track of reposts. Ask whether help in your language is available.
4. Ask the platform yourself as well. Use the site's report form, explain that the content shows you and breaches your privacy, and keep a screenshot of your request. Korean law expects the provider to act on such a request without delay.

Be careful with private companies that charge large sums to "erase you from the internet". Check what the public centre can do first.

What if the person who filmed me is someone I know?

It happens often: a partner, a flatmate, a classmate. Agreeing to be filmed in private is not agreeing to be shown to others, and the law says so in terms, even when you filmed yourself and sent the file to that person. If they now threaten to post it unless you stay with them or pay, that is a further and heavier crime.

Do not delete your conversations with them, even the painful ones. They show who had the file and what was said about it. Money the offender earned from the footage is confiscated by law.

Can I go home before the case ends?

Yes. A victim's lawyer appointed before your flight keeps working on your behalf from Korea: checking on the investigation, looking at the evidence once the case is in court, and speaking for you at hearings. If the prosecutor may need you at trial, ask early whether your evidence can be taken in advance. Removal requests can continue by email after you leave, so give the support centre and your lawyer a contact address that will still work.

Next step

Write down the date, place and links you have, and keep them somewhere the offender cannot reach. If you want to know whether to report, how to protect your stay while the case runs, or how to have a lawyer act for you after you leave Korea, bring your residence card and those notes to a consultation. Consultations are paid; when you contact us, a staff member will call you back and explain the fee.

법무법인 대한중앙
1533-7377

Rules applied

Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (성폭력범죄의 처벌 등에 관한 특례법) Article 14(1) (filming without consent, up to 7 years or 50 million won), Article 14(2) (distribution against the person's will, including footage made with consent or by the person), Article 14(3) (distribution for profit online, at least 3 years), Article 14(4) (possession, purchase, storage or viewing, up to 3 years or 30 million won), Article 14-2 (edited or synthesised material), Article 14-3 (threats using recordings), Article 15-3 (confiscation of proceeds), Article 23-2(1) (police request for deletion or blocking and explanation to the victim), Article 27 (victim's lawyer), Article 34(1) no. 1 and (2) (trusted person for victims of Article 14 offences), Article 41 (request for evidence preservation). Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법) Article 180 (court interpreter), Article 218 (items voluntarily submitted), Article 221(2) (interpreter commissioned by police). Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (정보통신망 이용촉진 및 정보보호 등에 관한 법률) Article 44-2(1) and (2) (request for deletion by the person harmed). Immigration Act (출입국관리법) Article 25-2(1) no. 2 (extension during a sexual crime case), Article 84(1); Enforcement Decree Article 92-2 no. 5; Enforcement Rule Article 70-2 no. 2.

This is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different.