According to Chapter VI of the Criminal Procedure Law, the extraordinary appeal system is a special relief litigation procedure filed with the Supreme Court by the Prosecutor General of the Supreme Prosecutors Office for a conclusive criminal judgment, on the grounds that the judgment in question was made contrary to the law. Thus, the object of an extraordinary appeal is to obtain a conclusive criminal judgment or an arbitral award which has substantially the same effect as a sentence of inflicting punishment, provided that the judgment or litigation procedure is against the law.
    Extraordinary appeals function to give defendants relief and to protect the public welfare, however, its main purpose is to correct improper judgments and to unify the legal opinions and their application. Therefore, any extraordinary appeal shall be based upon the facts recognized by the original court and the court on appeal shall only examine whether the correct law is properly applied to the recognized facts, but not the facts themselves. To relieve a conclusive judgment made based on a mistake of fact, a re-examination application shall be filed with the court which has jurisdiction over such case pursuant to the provisions of re-examination in Criminal Procedure Law, but such reexamination procedure is not within the scope of an extraordinary appeal.
    Extraordinary appeal is a special procedure among criminal procedures and the appeal is governed by the Supreme Court. The application for an extraordinary appeal is an exclusive authority of the Prosecutor General of the Supreme Prosecutors Office. Thus, an extraordinary appeal shall be filed by the Prosecutor General with the Supreme Court after the Prosecutor General has reviewed a conclusive criminal judgment and determined that such judgment is against the law. In case the litigant or party concerned believes that a conclusive criminal judgment is against the law, he may petition to the Prosecutor General for an extraordinary appeal. If a Prosecutor of any class of Prosecutors Office discovers that a conclusive judgment is against the law, based on the one-unit prosecution principal, he shall petition to the Prosecutor General for an extraordinary appeal by submitting a suggestion letter as well as the files and evidence of the subject case.
    An extraordinary appeal is filed by the Prosecutor General with the Supreme Court with an appellate paper enclosing the appeal ground(s). The Supreme Court will, without oral debate, conduct an investigation and examination based on the items, limited to those indicated in the ground(s) written in the appellate paper, and then grant its judgment. The judgment of an extraordinary appeal includes dismissal and revocation. The extraordinary appeal shall be dismissed if the Supreme Court determines that the extraordinary appeal is made without grounds; if the extraordinary appeal is considered to have a legal basis, the Supreme Court shall revoke the unlawful parts of the original judgment or criminal procedure, or revoke the original judgment and remit the case to the original court for  re-examination or grant a new judgment in such case.
    The extraordinary appeal shall become conclusive upon the Supreme Court judgment. The Supreme Court will deliver the judgment to the defendant and refer the case to the Supreme Prosecutors Office as well as the Prosecutors Office(s) of the case for execution.