For an investor who reads only English, a Korean company's disclosure exists from the moment its English version is filed. So beyond whether the figures match, we asked two more questions: how long after the Korean filing does the English one arrive, and what does the English version leave out?
What we measured
- Two samples. 1,211 English filings by 29 large KOSPI companies (January to October 2026), and 1,598 English filings by 150 KOSPI companies with consolidated assets of KRW 2 to 10 trillion at the end of 2025 (Korean filings from 1 May to 3 November 2026, English checked to 11 November). Each English filing on English KIND was paired with its Korean original on DART.
- Delay is counted in business days from the Korean filing date to the English filing date, skipping weekends and Korean public holidays.
- What is left out is measured on one item that is easy to count: the list of related earlier filings that many Korean disclosures print at the end.
The rules differ by size. Since May 2026 the largest companies must file in English on the same day as the Korean filing (next morning for afternoon filings), while most companies with assets of KRW 2 to 10 trillion have three business days (Financial Services Commission, 28 January 2026).
How late the English arrives
| English filed | Large companies (1,211) | KRW 2–10 trillion (1,598) |
|---|---|---|
| Same day | 77.5% | 44.6% |
| Next business day | 15.3% | 26.8% |
| 2–3 business days later | 6.9% | 27.3% |
| 4 or more business days later | 0.3% | 1.3% |
- The same-day rule worked for the largest companies. Their same-day share rose from about 67% (January to April) to 86% (May onward).
- At mid-sized companies, more than half arrive a day or more later, and more than one in four arrives two or more business days later.
- Some kinds of filing are slower. Among the common kinds at mid-sized companies, earnings filings were fastest; sales and supply contracts, and acquisitions of other companies' shares and debt guarantees, were slowest.
| KRW 2–10 trillion companies | Filings | Same day | Average delay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnings | 311 | 59% | 0.8 business days |
| Dividends | 100 | 42% | 1.2 |
| Sales and supply contracts | 177 | 20% | 1.3 |
| Shares in other companies, debt guarantees | 227 | 29% | 1.3 |
| All filings | 1,598 | 44.6% | 1.0 |
What the English leaves out
Many Korean disclosures end with a list of related earlier filings, so a reader can follow a decision from first notice to correction. In the English versions, that list was shorter in 10.0% of the filings that had one at large companies (42 of 422) and 13.2% at mid-sized companies (66 of 500). About one in ten listed dates at large companies, and about one in six at mid-sized companies, did not appear in English.
That is far more common than differing figures, which we found in about 0.7% of filings at large companies. A reader of the English alone cannot always tell that a fine, a contract change or a guarantee is part of an earlier chain.
Some English filings are also summaries. In one merger filing, the Korean report ran to about 184,000 characters and the English to about 64,000, although English text usually takes two to three times as many characters as the same Korean text.
What this means if you read Korean companies in English
- For mid-sized companies, check DART on the day. The Korean filing is often one to three business days ahead. Even without reading Korean, the filing title, date and tables are there first.
- Read the related-filing list on DART when a disclosure looks like part of a series. The dates alone tell you which earlier filings to open.
- Treat merger and restructuring filings in English as summaries until you have compared them with the Korean report.
What this does not show
- It is not a judgment on deadlines. We count filing dates, not times, and the rules have exceptions. A delay in this note does not mean a filing was late under the rules.
- It counts only English filings that exist. Korean filings with no English version are not in these numbers.
- It is not a market-wide rate. The samples cover 29 large and 150 mid-sized KOSPI companies.
- Deadlines differ inside the mid-sized group. Companies with assets of KRW 2 trillion or more and foreign ownership of 30% or more must also file on the same day (next morning for afternoon filings). We could not separate them, so the mid-sized figures mix both.
- Our holiday list is our own. It may differ slightly from the exchange calendar.
Corrected 13 November 2026: we could not confirm that the mid-sized sample first published here (310 filings by 30 companies) stayed within KRW 2 to 10 trillion in assets, so we remeasured on every KOSPI company in our data with end-2025 consolidated assets of KRW 2 to 10 trillion. We also added 58 large-company filings that an error in one company's English filing list had left out, and added 1 May and 17 July to our holiday list (on either day, none of the 270 companies in our data made a Korean exchange filing, and none of the 269 whose English filing lists we collected made an English one). Adding 1 May moved one large-company filing from two business days to one: the next-business-day share went from 15.2% to 15.3%. The main finding did not change: at mid-sized companies, more than half of English filings arrived a day or more after the Korean original. All corrections: corrections log.
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We are deciding whether to publish these measures each quarter, as totals only and without company names. If that would be useful, email us. If we publish it, we will send you the next one. This is a one-time reply, not a mailing list.
Sources
- Korean filings: Financial Supervisory Service DART
- English filings: Korea Exchange English KIND
- Filing deadlines: Financial Services Commission, 28 January 2026
This note measures filing dates and related-filing lists in public filings. It names no companies and is not a judgment on any company's disclosure practice.