Who now receives a drug-compensation application? Office names change in the Rules on Payment of Drug Compensation (October 2026)

What changed

Article 5 sets the application procedure. Under Article 5(1), a person seeking payment of compensation must submit the compensation payment application in the first prescribed form to the competent 'Chief Prosecutor of a District Prosecutors' Office (including a chief district prosecutor; the same applies below)'. The amendment replaces that office with the 'Chief of a Local Public Prosecution Office (including the chief of a branch local public prosecution office; the same applies below)'. Article 5(2) likewise changes the office that, on receipt of an application, attaches the listed documents and sends them in batches every February and August to the Minister of Justice through the Prosecutor General; Article 5(3) changes the office that may order a defective application to be supplemented and may attach an opinion on the amount, as may the Prosecutor General. The official reason gives the aim as tidying the names of local prosecutors' offices in step with the abolition of the Prosecutors' Offices and the creation of a Public Prosecution Service under the Minister of Justice.

Article 6(2) names the chair of the compensation review committee, which has five members including the chair. The chair was the 'Director of the Prosecution Bureau' and becomes the 'Director of the Criminal Affairs Bureau'; the other members remain Ministry of Justice officials appointed by the Minister of Justice. The official reason ties this to the renaming of the Ministry's internal Prosecution Bureau as the Criminal Affairs Bureau. Article 9(1) then obliges that chair to convene the committee without delay when the chief of a local public prosecution office submits the application papers under Article 5(2). Under Article 18, the payment decision is sent through the Prosecutor General to the chief of the local public prosecution office that closed the case, that chief notifies the applicant, pays the compensation, and keeps the payment record and payment register in the fifth and sixth prescribed forms.

The amendment also renames the offices in the first four prescribed forms and, in the second and third forms, changes 'prosecution disposition' to 'prosecutor's disposition'. The Rules have not been read against the Government Organization Act, the Public Prosecution Service Act, or Presidential Decree No. 36728, none of which is in this pack, and Article 18(4)'s reference to the Enforcement Decree has likewise not been read.

What to read in the text

The addendum contains one sentence: 'this Rule enters into force on 2 October 2026', one day after promulgation on 1 October 2026. It says nothing about cases pending before the Ministry, the review committee or any local prosecutors' office on that day, nothing about applications filed or dispositions made earlier, and nothing about transitional measures.

A file under the new names therefore needs to show which office received the application, when it was received, which office closed the underlying case and when, and when the payment decision was sent and the compensation paid. Whether an application filed before 2 October 2026 is read under the old or the new names is not settled by the addendum.

Questions for the legislature

Article 5(2) keeps the route 'through the Prosecutor General', while Article 5(1), Article 9(1) and Article 18(1) are re-lettered to the local public prosecution offices; the addendum is silent and the official reason only explains the renaming of offices. Does 'the Prosecutor General' continue to name the officer through whom applications and payment decisions pass on and after 2 October 2026?

The addendum states only 'this Rule enters into force on 2 October 2026' and contains no application clause; the official reason addresses names alone. Is a compensation application filed with, or a payment decision sent to, the office named in the former wording before 2 October 2026 to be completed under the old names or under 'Chief of a Local Public Prosecution Office'?

When to revisit

We revisit this note if an amendment replaces the retained reference to the Prosecutor General in Articles 5 and 18, if the Enforcement Decree provision cited in Article 18(4) is read against these Rules, or if a decision or Ministry practice explains how an application lodged before 2 October 2026 is completed.