Korean Entrapment Law: Korean Criminal Procedure Law Basics

The use of the Entrapment Defense in Korea depends on if the actions of the police/investigators have “induced” the suspect to commit a crime or merely provided an “opportunity” for the suspect to commit a crime.  The “crime inducing” act by the Korean government is a criminal defense to the alleged consummated crime.  The main job of the court in determining if the crime was induced is to determine the intent of the suspect at the time of the alleged inducing action by the Korean police/investigator.

The Korean Supreme Court clarified this entrapment criminal defense rule in a case disposed of in the Fall of 2005. The Supreme Court of Korea acknowledged that entrapment likely occurred in a case that concerned a paid informant and the smuggling of drugs from China to Korea. The informant, according to the defendants, asserted that the importation of the drugs was to assist the government efforts to fight drug trafficking. The defendants further contended that consistent persuasion of the informant led to them accepting and assisting in trafficking drugs. The prosecution essentially agreed with most of the defendants asserted facts, but
contended that the defendants were predisposed to committing the crime and thus had the requisite intent and, thus, was not induced.

The Supreme Court, in short, acknowledged that the defendants may have been induced and the prosecutor’s argument of predisposition to the commit the crime was not proven.  Thus, the defendants prevailed in proving the entrapment defense.  The proof was in the intent.

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