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[NY Times] South Koreans and Adultery

April 3, 2015

Many celebrities have been entangled in adultery cases over the years in South Korea. (Yonhap)

[THE NEW YORK TIMES] — There’s good news in South Korea: One of the country’s favorite actresses may return to the spotlight after a six-year absence. Unlike many entertainers who take time away for rehab or spiritual regeneration, Ok So-ri, a celebrated actress of the 1990s and the former host of the popular radio show “11 O’clock, I Am Ok So-ri,” left the country and abandoned her career to stay out of jail. In 2008 she was sentenced to eight months in prison after the actor Park Chul, who was then her husband, accused her of adultery. Now she is poised to come back home.

In February, South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the 62-year-old law that made adultery illegal. While enforcement has relaxed in recent years, about 53,000 people have been charged with adultery since 1985, the year the government started keeping track. If found guilty, the penalty could include jail time of up to two years, although it had become rare for convicted adulterers to serve time.

Though the decriminalization of adultery is a step forward for personal rights, most of the South Korean public does not see it that way.

The adultery law was seen as a safeguard for women against divorce. It empowered women because they could hold the threat of legal action over philandering husbands. It was a tool to keep their men from divorcing them. [READMORE]