This one is for a very good friend at Culturepress.
South Korean prosecutors have demanded an 18-month jail term for a popular actress who admitted breaking the country’s strict laws on adultery.
Ok So-ri had sought to overturn the 50-year old legislation, which carries a maximum jail sentence of two years.
She said it was an infringement of human rights and amounted to revenge.
Ms Ok has admitted having an affair with a well-known pop singer and her husband, Park Chul, is said to be seeking “a severe sentence”.
She blamed her infidelity on a loveless marriage to Mr Park, also an actor, and launched a legal challenge against the adultery law itself.
But the court ruled that the adultery law did not violate the right to “sexual self-determination and privacy” and that the available punishment was appropriate.
Ms Ok’s lawyers have said the legislation “has degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage”.
The Korean Times says that in the past three years about 1,200 people have been indicted annually for adultery, but very few have been jailed.
courtesy of BBC News
Americans are damn lucky that the Puritans did have the foresight of including this in the Constitution. This is a damn silly law in the 21st century and is aimed at keeping women as second class citizens.
Enuff said?
Thank you so much for this post, Chuq!
Wow, this Korean woman getting prosecuted for adultery is just ridiculous! I mean, Korean men, especially the men in power, commit adultery ALL THE TIME, and everyone in the country knows it.
The men have what they call “second wives” (they even caLl it just that–in English); they have a whole second common-law marriage with some young bimbo that gets her own condo, paid for by this politician or businessmen, and this is SO common, that the first wives know and don’t care as long as the bills get paid in their own homes. Rich guys in Korea are all doing it, with no shame whatsoever, it’s practically just a cultural norm now. But when a woman (or a poor man) commits adultery, they’ll prosecute. It’s all based on sex and status… very unfair.
I am glad to do it…every now and then I find some stuff that I just have to post about…They have the same type of thing in Thailand too….they are called “little” wives….the whole thing about adultery is just silly…