Hello, this is attorney Kwang-sik Kim of Cheongchul Law Firm.

In March 2026, Kakao Entertainment and Naver Webtoon won their damages suit against the operator of ‘Agitoon’, a site that had illegally distributed roughly 750,000 webtoon episodes and roughly 2.5 million web novel episodes. The court reportedly accepted in full the KRW 1 billion each company had claimed, ordering a total of KRW 2 billion in damages plus delay interest, and also declared the judgment provisionally enforceable. The operator was arrested in August 2024 through a joint investigation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office, and in December 2024 the Daejeon District Court imposed a two-year prison sentence and a collection order (chujing) of over KRW 70 million; the sentence was upheld on appeal in April 2025.

But a judgment is not the end; it is the beginning. It has not been reported whether the damages have actually been paid, and depending on the defendant’s financial situation and the collection order already enforced, actual recovery may be limited. Even with a winning judgment, if the other party has no assets or hides them, the judgment can end up as nothing more than ‘a piece of paper’. In practice, this worry is not confined to large corporations; it is one of the most common problems faced by individuals and small businesses who have not been paid for goods or loans.

Taking this case as a starting point, today I will go over what procedures you must go through to actually collect after a judgment, how to find the other party’s assets, how to tie up assets before and during litigation, and what to prepare from the outset to improve the odds of recovery.

[Question]

I won a lawsuit against a business partner for KRW 300 million in unpaid goods. But even after the judgment, they are not paying and will not answer my calls. What can I do with the judgment?

[Answer]

1. A Judgment Is Only a ‘Right to Be Paid’ — The Starting Point of Compulsory Execution

A winning judgment merely confirms that the other party is obligated to pay you; the court does not collect the money on your behalf. If the other party does not pay voluntarily, the creditor must apply for compulsory execution. Compulsory execution proceeds by obtaining a writ of execution (집행문) on an enforceable document such as a judgment (an enforcement title, 집행권원), and even before the judgment becomes final, you can enforce it immediately if it carries a declaration of provisional execution. That is why the Agitoon judgment included a declaration of provisional execution.

What you execute against depends on the type of assets the other party holds. Real estate is recovered through compulsory auction; claims such as bank deposits, wages and trade receivables through seizure and collection orders or assignment orders; and movables through seizure of tangible movables. In the end, the success of compulsory execution hinges on ‘whether the other party has assets to execute against, and whether you can find them’. Also, because the limitation period for a claim established by a final judgment is 10 years (Civil Act Article 165(1) (민법 제165조 제1항); for a provisionally enforceable judgment, 10 years from the date it becomes final), even if there are no assets right now, you can manage the limitation period and wait until assets appear. When the limitation period is about to expire, you may file a new suit to interrupt it (Supreme Court en banc Decision 2018Da22008), and a new form of declaratory action solely to interrupt the limitation period is also permitted (Supreme Court en banc Decision 2015Da232316).

▶ Card News Summary A judgment alone does not bring in money. You must obtain a writ of execution on a provisionally enforceable or final judgment and carry out compulsory execution against real estate, deposits, wages and the like, and the limitation period for a judgment claim is 10 years.

2. Finding the Other Party’s Assets — Property Disclosure and Property Inquiry

When you do not know what assets the other party holds, the first procedure to use is a property disclosure order (Civil Execution Act Article 61 (민사집행법 제61조)). The court orders the debtor to submit a list of assets and swear that it is truthful; a debtor who, without good cause, fails to appear on the disclosure date or refuses to submit the list or take the oath may be detained for up to 20 days, and a debtor who submits a false list may be punished by imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to KRW 5 million (Articles 68(1) and 68(9) of the same Act). However, a property disclosure order must be applied for on the basis of a final judgment or the like; it cannot be applied for on a judgment that merely carries a declaration of provisional execution (proviso to Article 61(1) of the same Act). So in a case like Agitoon, which is at the provisional execution stage, property disclosure and the property inquiry that builds on it become available only after the judgment becomes final.

A creditor who has applied for property disclosure may, where disclosure proves insufficient, apply for a property inquiry (Civil Execution Act Article 74(1) (민사집행법 제74조 제1항)). The court queries public institutions and financial institutions all at once for real estate, deposits, insurance, shares and other assets in the debtor’s name, which is effective for finding assets a creditor could never find alone. In addition, if certain requirements are met, the debtor can be entered on the register of defaulting debtors (Article 70 of the same Act; provisionally enforceable judgments are excluded), and since a copy of the register is sent to financial institutions and used as credit information (Article 72(3) of the same Act), this creates disadvantages in financial transactions and indirectly pressures the debtor to pay. Also, from November 1, 2026, the amended Civil Execution Rules take effect, laying out specific procedures for the seizure, liquidation and provisional attachment of virtual assets held at exchanges and virtual assets held directly by the debtor.

▶ Card News Summary Once the judgment is final, use a property disclosure order to make the debtor reveal their own assets (detention for non-compliance, criminal punishment for false statements) and a property inquiry to search financial institutions and others at once. Note that these are not available on a provisionally enforceable judgment alone.

3. Tying Up Assets Before and During Litigation — Provisional Attachment and Revocation of Fraudulent Acts

The most effective recovery strategy is to tie up the other party’s assets before the judgment comes down. Litigation takes months to years, and if the other party sells off or hides assets in the meantime, there will be nothing to execute against even if you win. Provisional attachment is a preservative measure that, to secure future execution of a monetary claim, prevents the debtor from disposing of real estate, deposits, trade receivables and the like in advance (Civil Execution Act Article 276 (민사집행법 제276조)); its advantage is that you can obtain a decision quickly without notice to the other party. However, courts often require security, and if you ultimately lose on the merits, the attaching creditor is presumed to have been at fault and may have to compensate the other party for its losses (Supreme Court Decision 2020Da242935, June 1, 2023, among others), so careful judgment is required.

If the other party has already transferred assets to family or acquaintances to avoid paying the debt, you can exercise the creditor’s right of revocation (revocation of fraudulent acts) to cancel that disposition and restore the assets to the debtor’s name (Civil Act Article 406 (민법 제406조)). This action must be brought within one year from the date the creditor learned of the ground for revocation and within five years from the date of the disposition, so if you discover a suspicious transfer of assets, you must act quickly.

▶ Card News Summary Tying up the other party’s assets through provisional attachment before and during litigation is the most effective approach. If assets have already been moved, revocation of fraudulent acts can bring them back, but the action must be filed within one year of learning of it and within five years of the disposition.

4. When There Is a Parallel Criminal Case — Linking Civil and Criminal Proceedings

When the debt arises from a crime, as in the Agitoon case, it is important to use criminal and civil procedures together. The flow of criminal proceeds and account information revealed during the investigation and criminal trial become important clues for locating the other party’s assets, and defendants seeking a lighter sentence sometimes make restitution through settlement or deposit. For certain crimes such as fraud and embezzlement, you can also use the compensation order system, under which the criminal court orders compensation for the victim alongside the sentence (Act on Special Cases Concerning Expedition of Legal Proceedings Article 25 (소송촉진 등에 관한 특례법 제25조)). However, copyright infringement is not an offense eligible for compensation orders, so this system could not be used in the Agitoon case; for non-eligible offenses, a compensation order is possible only for an agreed amount of compensation.

That said, when criminal proceeds are confiscated or collected by the State, the assets a victim can execute against in a civil case may shrink accordingly. Property taken from victims through crimes such as fraud and embezzlement (crime-victim property) is in principle not subject to confiscation or collection (Act on Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment Articles 8(3) and 10(2) (범죄수익은닉규제법 제8조 제3항, 제10조 제2항)), and in certain fraud, embezzlement and breach-of-trust cases there is also a system for returning property confiscated by the State to victims (Act on Special Cases Concerning the Confiscation and Return of Corrupt Property Article 6 (부패재산몰수법 제6조)). Proceeds from copyright infringement, however, do not enjoy such protection, so as in the Agitoon case, collection by the State and civil recovery may compete. Victims should therefore consider civil damages and provisional attachment together from the complaint stage and secure the other party’s assets first while the criminal proceedings are under way.

▶ Card News Summary If the debt stems from a crime, use investigation materials as clues for tracing assets and consider provisional attachment together from the complaint stage. If criminal proceeds are confiscated or collected, the share available for civil recovery may shrink.

5. Think About Recovery from the Start — A Debt Recovery Checklist

First, secure means of recovery from the transaction stage. Take collateral or a guarantee, or have the promise to pay drawn up as a notarial deed with a consent to compulsory execution, and you can proceed straight to compulsory execution without a lawsuit. Second, when it becomes clear you are not going to be paid, organize information on the other party’s assets (banks used, real estate, major customers and so on) as quickly as possible and consider provisional attachment before litigation. For monetary claims that are not seriously disputed, a payment order can get you an enforcement title relatively quickly, and a final payment order can be enforced even without a writ of execution (Civil Execution Act Article 58(1) (민사집행법 제58조 제1항)).

Third, if there is a declaration of provisional execution, promptly seize the assets you already know of, and once the judgment becomes final, use property disclosure and property inquiry to find hidden assets. Fourth, even if there are no assets to execute against right now, do not give up; take steps to interrupt the limitation period before the judgment claim’s 10-year period runs out. The other party may later receive an inheritance or restart a business, and you can execute then. If the other party’s assets are located abroad, you may need a procedure to have the Korean judgment recognized and enforced in that country, which calls for separate review.

▶ Card News Summary ① Secure collateral, guarantees and a notarial deed with consent to execution from the transaction stage ② Provisional attachment early in the dispute ③ Prompt seizure at the provisional execution stage, then property disclosure and property inquiry after the judgment is final ④ Manage the 10-year limitation period ⑤ Separate enforcement procedures for assets abroad.

The Agitoon case shows that ‘winning a lawsuit’ and ‘collecting on it’ are two different things. Success in debt recovery depends less on the judgment itself than on how quickly you identify and tie up the other party’s assets. If you see a risk of not being paid, it is important to design the process all the way through to execution from the moment you start thinking about litigation.

Cheongchul Law Firm provides legal advice across the entire debt recovery process, from preservative measures such as provisional attachment and injunctions, to lawsuits for loans, payment for goods and damages, property disclosure, property inquiry and compulsory execution, actions to revoke fraudulent acts, and victim restitution linked with criminal complaints. Please feel free to contact us whenever you need related advice.