SKorean court rules on actress' case, upholds ban on adultery

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld a ban on adultery Thursday, rejecting complaints that the 55-year-old law is outdated and constitutes an invasion of privacy. The decision was the fourth since a 1990 ruling upheld a law that makes it a crime to have an extramarital affair. Guilty spouses face up to two years in prison if convicted, though few end up behind bars. Among those facing prison on adultery charges is a popular South Korean movie star at the center of a tawdry scandal involving her husband, his opera singer friend and an Italian chef. Actress Ok So-ri sought to have the ban ruled unconstitutional. Her case had been suspended earlier this year, pending Thursday's ruling. To abolish the law, at least six of the court's nine judges must oppose it. The court said four judges backed the law while five called for its abolishment or revision. The court "ruled that the criminal code punishing adulterous relations ... does not infringe upon individual secrecy, privacy and sexual rights," according to a court statement. South Korea remains deeply conservative and is influenced by a Confucian heritage despite decades of Western influence. Supporters of the adultery ban say it promotes monogamy and keeps families intact. Opponents say the government has no right to interfere in people's private lives. While women's rights group were the ban's biggest supporters in the past when the law was meant to keep philandering husbands in line, in recent years some husbands have begun pressing adultery charges on their unfaithful wives. Ok denied her actor husband's allegations that she had an affair with the Italian chef, but she admitted to a relationship with an opera singer friend of his. She blamed a loveless marriage. The mudslinging filled tabloid pages and could mean the end of the actress's career. The number of adultery cases filed in South Korea has dropped in recent years, declining to 8,070 in 2006 from 12,760 in 2000, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. About 80 percent of those cases were dropped without resulting in formal charges, largely because complaints were withdrawn. In 2005, a group of lawmakers introduced a parliamentary proposal aimed at scrapping the law, but legislators have never acted on it, apparently out of concerns of backlash from conservative voters. Many Muslim nations have similar adultery laws. Austria, Switzerland and some U.S. states also have laws prohibiting extramarital affairs, according to the Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations, a government-funded legal counseling office.