South Korea legalizes adultery

The South Korean Constitutional Court at its plenary session yesterday February 25th struck down a 60-year-old law which forbids all act of adultery and punishes violators with two years imprisonment.

The presiding justice, Park Han-Chul while striking out the law said even though the act of adultery is bad, the country had no power in interfering in peoples private lives

“Even if adultery should be condemned as immoral, state power should not intervene in individuals’ private lives,” said presiding justice Park Han-Chul.


In the last six years, close to 5,500 people have been formerly arraigned on adultery charges including nearly 900 in 2014. In 2004, 216 people were jailed for adultery but the numbers dropped to 42 in 2008 and from 2008 till date, only 22 people had been sentenced to jail.

Now, married people in South Korea can have sex with other people and not face any penalty.