South Korea
Digital Asset
Prosecution: Law Should Be Amended to Allow Early Freezing of Criminal Proceeds Held as Virtual Assets
- Prosecutor Kim Byung-jin (Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office) proposed the plan in the Supreme Prosecutors' Office journal "New Trends in Criminal Law," published in September.
- The proposal calls for a new FIU-led early freezing system under the Specified Financial Information Act, allowing domestic exchange-held assets to be frozen for up to six months.
- Kim noted that blockchain traceability of criminal proceeds does not by itself guarantee actual recovery, underscoring the need for an early-freezing legal mechanism.