Since May 2026, every KOSPI company with assets of KRW 2 trillion or more, 265 companies, files its 55 kinds of major-event disclosure in English as well, and the largest file on the same day as the Korean original. Most of these English filings match the Korean ones. In our check of 1,153 of them, 10 figures in 6 filings differed from the Korean original, about 0.5% (findings). The few that differ tend to differ in ways that matter: a share count off by one digit, an amount a million times too small. Here is how to catch them without reading Korean.
Before you use a figure from an English filing
- Re-add the tables. Check that every total follows from its own lines. In our first sample, re-adding the English tables would have caught five of the six differences on its own.
- Read the unit in the table header. Korean tables are often in KRW million or KRW thousand, and shares in thousands. If the English header says "KRW" but the values look small, compare one figure with a number you already know, such as the company's equity or market value.
- Divide amount by shares. For buybacks, disposals and share issues, the amount divided by the number of shares should land near the stated price per share and near the market price. A missing or added digit moves this by about ten times.
- Count digits on large amounts. A 13-digit won amount that lost one digit reads as about a tenth of its size and still looks plausible. Line the figure up against the same item in an earlier filing.
- Use the after values in corrected filings. Corrected filings print the values before and after the correction side by side. Make sure you are reading the corrected column.
- Check dates and periods. Acquisition periods, record dates and fiscal-year labels should match the Korean filing. Off-by-one-year labels are easy to miss in long tables.
- Percent or percentage points. In value-up plans, a payout ratio rising from 25% to 30% is 5 percentage points, or 20 percent. Check which one the English text means.
When something does not add up
Open the Korean original. Find the same company and filing date on the Financial Supervisory Service's DART; English filings are on the Korea Exchange's English KIND. You do not need to read Korean to compare a table: amounts, share counts and dates use the same digits, so you can match them row by row. If the two versions still differ, ask the company's investor relations team which figure is correct.
Where differences showed up in our checks
- Treasury-share filings. 4 of the 6 filings with differences were about acquiring, disposing of or holding treasury shares in trust. These have long tables of similar-looking share counts and amounts.
- Unit labels. One table headed "Amount (KRW)" held values in KRW million.
- Column placement. In one filing the right numbers sat under the wrong column. Re-adding does not catch this; only a side-by-side look does.
What this checklist is not
- Not investment advice. It is a way to read figures, not a view on any company.
- Not a rate for the market. Our samples come from large KOSPI companies over ten months of 2026.
- Figures only. It does not cover the quality of the English sentences.
Based on our comparison of public filings on DART and English KIND, checked by a person on 3 and 4 November 2026. Company names and exact figures are left out.