South Korean court scraps adultery ban
Lee Hyun-jeong
The Korea Herald

SEOUL: -- South Korea's Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down South Korea’s controversial adultery law, ending a decades-long debate.

In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that the anticheating law breaches the individual’s sexual rights and privacy, and thereby violates the Constitution. Six votes were needed to overturn the law.

Under the law, adultery was a crime punishable by up to two years behind bars. Any third person involved in a love affair could also face criminal charges. The regulation was only applicable when a spouse filed a lawsuit.

“The public perception toward the anticheating law does not reach consensus anymore. Whether to sustain a marriage should depend on people’s free will and choices,” the majority of the judges said.

“Considering the level of social criticism (of the adultery law), it has become difficult to bring about the intended precautionary effects. In fact, it has rather been used as a means of divorce for those who committed more faults (than their partners) yet wished to break up, and a means of blackmailing erratic housewives.”

The two dissenting judges viewed the matter differently.

“Adultery is an act that damages the marriage-based social system and has a destructive impact on families. Therefore, it is not included in the realm of the individual’s sexual rights,” the minority said, including a left-leaning female judge.

Full story: http://www.asianewsnet.net/news-72174.html


-- ANN 2015-02-27

An adultery law in Thailand would benefit quite a few farang, if all the stories of wayward wives are to be believed.

The adultery law was a kind of family defense act promoted by conservatives in their attempt to preserve the 500 year old Confucian family culture, so this overwhelming vote by the Constitution Court signals the end of that.

I don't know how many times I heard during my time in (South) Korea that, "In Korea, man is king." The men kept saying that in Korea it is "king, father, teacher." They never liked it much when my consistent response was to ask 'em who is the current king of the Republic of Korea. Indeed, prostitution has long been legal and highly visible in storefront businesses even to the point of their being present alongside or around the corner from schools.

One can't miss the rows of glass front little places on main streets that have, in the words of one appalled woman from Canada, "babies" working in them. The 'ladies' in those places are indeed very and really young teenage girls. I lost count of the Korean men who had something going on the side, especially almost any man 50 or older whose unaffected and wrinkled wife nonetheless swore openly and up and down he was a good husband and father.

Korean wives daily suffer their husband's dominance and it's is now clear this condition will continue. Western women who taught English in Korea made a short stay of it there as they found the male dominated socio-cultural environment oppressive in the extreme.

Given how much Koreans emulate the United States, Korean male teachers used to ask me about the American 21st century family, how to preserve the nuclear family system under modern pressures. I told 'em to forget it, to throw in the towel, and it looks like some of those guys got appointed to the Constitution Court.

Instead of going to Pattaya, started thinking of going to South Korea

I'm not really thinking of committing adultery......... but it will just make me feel free about my sexual rights

What do you think, am I right members?

Male chauvinist paradise, S Korea.

No doubt of it.

Ride high in the saddle there

The adultery law was a kind of family defense act promoted by conservatives in their attempt to preserve the 500 year old Confucian family culture, so this overwhelming vote by the Constitution Court signals the end of that.

I was under the impression that "Confucian family culture" included the clause that men are entitled to have as many female concubines as they are able to provide a comfortable lifestyle for.

Me, I'm sticking with the free North. Dreadful police state, the south..