For M&A due diligence in Korea, book a Korean–English interpreter who knows deal vocabulary and can sight-translate, let your counsel set the NDA and device rules, and test candidates on a mock management interview in both directions before booking.
As of
Author: Paul Dahoon Kim (Founder, MetaPret. Working Korean-English interpreter, ~100 engagements)
Last updated: 2026-10-09
Read time: ~7 minutes
Summary: For acquirers, investors, and advisers running due diligence on a Korean target: where interpretation risk sits, which deal terms trip interpreters, confidentiality, sight translation, shared versus own interpreters, and how to test skill first.
Start with the management interviews: that is where a hedge, a restated number, or a softened "no" changes what your deal team believes. Book a Korean–English interpreter who knows diligence vocabulary and can sight-translate, let your counsel set the NDA and device rules, and decide early whether each side brings its own interpreter. Before booking, test candidates on a mock management interview, in both directions, played once, recorded, and scored against a rubric.
Who this guide is for
Foreign acquirers, private equity funds, and their financial, legal, tax, and HR advisers running diligence on a Korean company. A cross-border diligence in Korea usually combines management interviews, site visits, expert sessions, and document review, often over several days.
What makes due diligence different
The management interview is where nuance matters
What management says about the documents runs through the interpreter. Three patterns cause most of the trouble:
- Hedges that mean no. "검토 중입니다" (it is under review) or "검토해 보겠습니다" (will look into it) is often a polite way to avoid committing, sometimes a soft no. Rendered as "it is under serious consideration," it becomes a commitment nobody made. A good interpreter keeps the hedge a hedge.
- Numbers restated on the fly. Korean counts large numbers in 만 (ten thousand) and 억 (one hundred million); English counts in thousands and millions. "3억 5천" is 350 million won, and a slipped unit is a factor of ten. When management corrects a figure mid-answer, both figures must come through.
- Missing subjects. Korean often leaves out the subject, so an answer may not say whether the target, its parent, or an affiliate holds a contract or a liability. In diligence that matters. A good interpreter asks rather than guesses.
Deal vocabulary is its own field
A business interpreter may know finance words but not how a deal uses them. Terms that come up, with the Korean commonly used:
- Working capital (운전자본) and net debt (순차입금), as defined for the price adjustment
- EBITDA adjustments (EBITDA 조정) and one-off items (일회성 항목)
- Contingent liabilities (우발채무), off-balance-sheet liabilities (부외부채), related-party transactions (특수관계자 거래)
- Change-of-control clauses (지배권 변경 조항) in customer, lease, and loan agreements
- Earn-out (언아웃), escrow (에스크로), representations and warranties (진술 및 보장), and the share purchase agreement (주식매매계약)
- In HR diligence, 통상임금 (ordinary wage, the base for overtime pay) and 평균임금 (average wage, the base for severance pay). They are easy to blur in English and they move the liability figure.
Where your advisers and the target's use different Korean renderings, agree one before the sessions.
Confidentiality is set by counsel, not by the interpreter
The interpreter will hear non-public information about both companies. Ask your counsel to decide, before the first session:
- NDA. The deal NDA, a separate interpreter NDA, or both.
- Clean-team rules. Whether the interpreter sits inside the clean team, and whether they may then work sessions with the business team.
- Devices and recording. Whether phones or laptops may enter the data room, whether any session is recorded, and where the interpreter's consecutive notes go afterwards.
The interpreter follows these rules; they do not set them.
Document-heavy sessions need sight translation
Board minutes, employment rules, contracts, and tax filings are in Korean. Without time for written translation, the interpreter reads them aloud in English on the spot. That is sight translation, a separate skill, so include a short document in the test. For anything your decision will rest on, ask your counsel whether a written translation is needed.
One shared interpreter, or one per side
- Shared. Common in routine expert sessions. The interpreter stays neutral: renders what is said, advises neither side, carries nothing between sessions. Agree this at the start.
- Each side brings its own. Usual for management interviews and negotiation. Your interpreter can brief you in breaks on the other side's wording and flag when a rendering drifted.
Where to look
- Local interpretation agencies in Seoul. Ask whether they place interpreters for diligence specifically and how they assess deal vocabulary.
- Referrals from advisers. Law firms, accounting firms, and banks that run Korean deals often know diligence interpreters. Ask which phase they handled: a signing ceremony is not a management interview.
- Professional associations. AIIC, the international association of conference interpreters, and local interpreter associations. Ask about deal work directly.
- Platforms. Some list interpreters by language; others source and test candidates per request. Ask whether you see the result before you choose.
Confirm the interpreter is eligible to work in Korea and free for every session date, including follow-ups that get added.
How to check skill before booking
- Use a mock management interview. A few minutes of a CFO answering diligence questions: a working capital explanation, a restated figure in 억, a cautiously described contingent liability, and a "검토 중입니다."
- Test both directions. Questions go English into Korean; answers come back Korean into English.
- Play it once and record. No replay, no preparation time.
- Add a short sight translation. One Korean contract clause or financial note, read aloud in English.
- Score against a rubric. Content fidelity (figures, hedges, who owns what), target-language fluency, and delivery. Have a bilingual adviser listen to both directions.
For a full walkthrough, see How to verify an interpreter's skill before hiring. Most diligence sessions run consecutive; see Consecutive vs simultaneous.
What to send the interpreter beforehand
- Session plan. Workstreams, attendees from each side, and what each session needs to establish.
- Request list and glossary. With agreed Korean renderings.
- Cleared documents. Whatever your counsel's rules allow: organisation chart, financial summary, key contracts.
- Names and entities. Korean names with romanisation and titles, and which affiliates are in scope.
- Sensitive topics and confidentiality terms. Disputes or employee matters to handle with care, plus the NDA and device policy.
A briefing call before the first interview is worth more than any one of these.
How MetaPret handles a due diligence request in Korea
Seoul is one of MetaPret's hub cities. When you submit a request with the language pair, field, city, dates, and format, MetaPret builds a short interpretation test from that engagement's field, covering both directions of the pair. Candidates are sourced and tested for the city and dates of each request. Each passage plays once, and the recordings are scored in each direction on the three axes above.
Assignment runs in this order: eligibility to work at the location, availability on the dates, then the interpretation test. On a private comparison page, you see each candidate whose test was confirmed, under a pseudonym, with their scores. Names appear after you pick one. Open requests are posted on the MetaPret board.
Verified supply is deepest in Seoul today; verification travels to wherever your meeting is. The full method is published at How MetaPret tests. Deal details are on the M&A interpreters page, and city details on the Seoul page.
FAQ (FAQPage schema)
Q: What does an interpreter do in due diligence in Korea?
A: They interpret management interviews, expert sessions, and site visits between your advisers and the Korean target, and often sight-translate Korean documents. The role is to render what is said, hedges and restated figures included, not to judge what it means for the deal.
Q: Should both sides share one interpreter in due diligence?
A: Routine expert sessions often share one, if both sides agree the interpreter stays neutral. For management interviews and negotiation, each side usually brings its own.
Q: Does a due diligence interpreter need to sign an NDA?
A: Usually yes, but the form is your counsel's decision, along with clean-team rules and device and recording policy. Ask your counsel to set these before the interpreter is confirmed.
Q: Why does "검토 중입니다" matter in a management interview?
A: It means "it is under review," but is often a polite way to avoid committing. Rendered as a firm plan, it becomes a commitment that was never made.
About the author
Paul Dahoon Kim is the founder of MetaPret and a working Korean-English interpreter with around 100 professional engagements across military intelligence, international cooperation, and corporate business interpretation. He still personally takes on a small number of high-stakes engagements every quarter to stay current with the field.
About page · Contact: cs@metapret.net · LinkedIn