South Korean actress Ok So-ri (star of films such as Kwak Jae-yong’s A Sketch of a Rainy Day, Kwak Ji-kyun’s Portrait of Youth and Kang Jeong-su’s A Pale Rainy Day) was convicted Wednesday of adultery, a conviction that under South Korean law could have meant jail time.
Ok So-ri was married to popular radio personality Park Chul when she began an affair with an opera singer. She’s spent much of the past year fighting not only to avoid jail time, but to change the conservative South Korean laws.
A popular actor who has campaigned in vain to overturn South Korea’s ban on adultery was given a suspended prison sentence on December 17 after she admitted having an affair with a singer. The court sentenced Ok So-ri to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. Her lover received a six-month suspended sentence.
Earlier this year the 40-year-old actor unsuccessfully fought against the criminalisation of adultery, which is part of the country’s 55-year-old criminal code. In a case taken to the country’s constitutional court, her lawyers argued that the law amounted to an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. “The adultery law has degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage,” they argued. In October the court upheld the ban.
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.
[From The Guardian]
Can you believe this? We all joke about ZOMG Homewreckers and parse the words of many of these celebrities (well, some of us are joking) but for it actually to come to criminal court? And in such a seemingly-progressive country like South Korea, it just astounds me. The Guardian ran a follow-up story with comments from the convicted adulterer.
Having already lost both custody of her daughter and her fight to persuade South Korea’s constitutional court to overturn a 1953 anti-adultery law, actor Ok So-ri has been given a suspended eight-month prison sentence for her affair with an opera singer.
Ok’s former husband, radio personality Park Chul, had demanded an 18-month tariff, but the judge recognised that Park’s lifestyle was partly responsible for the breakdown of the marriage and that Ok had suffered considerable distress during the case.
On leaving court, Ok told reporters, “I would like to say I’m sorry for causing so much trouble to society.” It remains to be seen how the verdict will affect the career of an actor who is little known in the west but is hugely popular in South Korea…
[From The Guardian]
Okay, now the ex-husband is just pissing me off. He gets sole custody of their daughter, he publicly humiliates his ex-wife and most likely destroyed her career, and he’s still pushing for her to do jail time?!? I realize the guy’s pride was hurt, but this just seems like the worst kind of bitterness and institutionalized societal misogyny.
The Guardian film-blogger David Parkinson does compare-and-contrast with other famous film-star “homewrecking” scandals, name-checking Brangelina and Isabella Rossellini, which I tend to think is entirely inappropriate. Here’s the difference – Rossellini, Jolie and Pitt were never criminally charged with adultery.
I wonder if the opera singer was married and if so when HIS trial is… no, didn’t think so. This is just ludicrous – although I know that there are plenty of people who visit this blog who will think it’s a marvellous idea and call for it to be brought into law in Europe/US/Australia etc.
It could be worse, I suppose, the Taliban would have publicly executed her.
Nah, the Taliban favor shame killings. A brother would have slit her throat while she slept for disgracing the family.
this is really terrible. korean men frequently have mistresses and commit adultery. for once, i’d like to see a man get this punishment from a pissed-off ex wife. i bet that law would get changed a lot quicker. her ex is an ass-wipe. for as much as I love Korea, its extremely conservative with respect to gender roles, etc and what is acceptable for me to do versus women.
Adultery is definately wrong, but jail time is excessive. Especially when your ex-husband sounds like a total dick.
I wonder if the opera singer was married and if so when HIS trial is… no, didn’t think so.
The article says he got a suspended sentence as well. I have no idea if he was married as well, though.
It is ridiculous and backwards as hell, but from the responses some people have to similar celeb entanglements, it might as well be the same here.
Luckily for us, our founding fathers were getting enough side trim to realize how stupid such a law would be here. *smile*
On a point of information Dante, back when the Taliban were in charge, public executions of women were held in football stadiums before games. Now I’d wink to let you know that I wasn’t being snotty, but I can’t without having to languish in Mod-purgatory.
For me the issue is not whether something is “wrong” it’s whether it should be a criminal offence.
EDIT: Ah thanks for pointing that out Vermillion, I’d missed that when I skimmed the article. At least there was a bit of parity in sentencing at least.
Women have pretty much always been held accountable and/or penalized for their sexuality, while men are lauded for theirs, and likely that will continue to be the case.
We may not physically ‘stone’ women here in western society for what we perceive to be inappropriate sexual expression but we certainly stone them verbally.
We may not physically ’stone’ women here in western society for what we perceive to be inappropriate sexual expression but we certainly stone them verbally.
Agreed.
It’s why if a girl behaves a certain way, she’s a whore, a slut etc etc. But a man? He’s a “pimp” a “king” a “badass” who doesn’t play by anyone’s rules.
Whoops – I meant Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, not Isabella Rossellini, the *product* of ZOMG Homewrecking, naturally.
You should read the second Guardian article, though. The guy makes it sound like *of course* there should be jail time for adultery.
I’m a Korean American and I think it’s great.
You guys are making this out to be some sexist law but it’s not. If men get caught committing adultery they go to jail as well (there is no favoritism). In this case it may be the that man is not married or that his spouse, if he has one, is not pressing for more jail time.
I know that here in America marriage is seen more as an inconvenience in today’s society, but let’s look at a few other things.
If a single man goes and gets a hooker (which is legal in many countries), he can get a big fine, put in jail, and have his name published. By going to a hooker who is he really hurting? Assuming the hooker isn’t sex slave.
So instead you have two people that promised to be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives, they have children and everything. If the woman wants to ruin her marriage and have fun with another guy then get a divorce.
Everyone here is criminalizing the husband (whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty??).
The fact is, the woman knew the law (everyone in Korea does) before she chose to sleep around. She knew the repercussions of her actions yet she stil chose to do it. Being an actress also means that you are in put in the spotlight even more so than normal people so everyone is going to hear about it.
She knew the rules, she broke them and now she is reaping what she sowed.
I find it even more amazing that here in the US, people go have affairs (like Brad Pitt) and yet no one seems to think that there is anything wrong with it.
If you want to fool around, be honest with your wife/husband/family and get a divorce first.
Sentencing someone to jail for adultery is right up there with jailing people for bad debt: Archaic and riddled with character judgment.
So jailing people for their indiscretions instead of letting them work out their own lives for themselves is a good thing? State-enforced morality is now lauded? Well, welcome to the 21st century America my 1950’s Soviet-minded Korean friend.
I knew some @ssh*le would have to invoke Brad or AJ eventually. G*dd*mnit people are you EVER going to get past it?
Vdantev – The guy who wrote the Guardian article did it first! He was trying to draw a parallel to this Korean case and Brangelina.
Wangja makes excellent points, especially concerning the single man and a hooker. I don’t think it’s right for us to judge Korean culture and laws stemming from it when we may not be so familiar with it.
My biggest question is how easy it might be to get a divorce in Korea. That will influence my feelings on this law and this story. Until then, who am I to judge? I don’t know enough about it.
(If it’s relatively easy to divorce, she has no excuse to be an adulterer. If divorces are next to impossible to get, she had good reason to cheat.)
Funny how these ‘parallels’ have awfully convoluted trajectories…
Wangja I agree that she reaped what she sowed… she knew the laws and she chose to break them. A little bit silly… but I don’t like the sound of that law. Not to say cheating is okay, I am firmly against cheating, but I mean, who somebody is sleeping with is nobody’s business and the law really doesn’t need to come into it. I think as adults, the people involved should be able to work it out between themselves… *sigh* I love Australia.
Meh. They both got suspended sentences (i.e. nothing). Adultery is illegal in the United States too. The punishment is usually the same if it goes to court…nothing. But usually the spouse has to press charges for it to even get that for.
Wangja– I lived in S. Korea for a while and it was my impression there that although everyone knew the law, very few people actually take it to court. One of my coworkers was a husband cheating on his wife with my (expat) coworker, and the administration found out and they weren’t even fired. To my knowledge it never went to court.
While it is theoretically a good thing to back the sanctity of marriage up with something other than talk, I really can’t see how jail time would save a marriage, and I can’t see how it would be good for a child to see their father campaign to put their mother in jail. It certainly seems to have done nothing to have saved this particular marriage, which seems to have been Ok So-ri’s point.
Also, understanding another culture’s viewpoint is one thing, but I hate when people use cultural relativism to dismiss things. Really, since S. Korean culture is different we have no basis on which to question this particular law? If you really think so, then you’re obliged not to question honor killings either. South Koreans (Ok So-Ri, for example) are questioning this law, why not us?
i lived in south korea for two years. the hypocrisy involved in the mere notion of enforcing this law is beyond hilarious. adultery is practically an industry in that godless culture. business-minded people recognize that there’s money to be made because of the high divorce rate, extremely unhappy marriages everywhere you look, and very high rates of spousal abuse (man on woman) that are rarely if ever addressed… so there are several social institutions (the famous “love motels” being the best known of them, grossly ubiquitous brothels another) that support and facilitate the discreet practice of adultery. this woman is being targeted for some personal reason. i pity her and i pity anyone else who is stuck in that inane place.
@Kaligula: I love how you refer to S. Korea as a godless culture. Because, clearly, we should judge everyone by what they don’t believe in.
e_e
I wish the so called “Christian” nations would institute this law. People should be held accountable for adultery. Don’t get married if you can’t stay faithful. Period.
I think that she should be punished because she broke a law.Even if we think laws are ridiculous in the U.S we follow them. No one says okay he was hungry so he broke into that store. Who cares whether it’s unethical that’s between him and God. No you can’t just take food from a store or you’ll get arrested for shop lifting and possibly have jail time even if it’s for a can of soup.
A marriage is a legal contract. You broke it by cheating. It’s also a law that you broke. You were unethical by cheating anyways, and as such they are trying to make people consider marriage more seriously.
I am not Korean but I LOVE this law. If it was enforced in America I bet a lot less people would cheat. They’d divorce before they cheated. We only do what we can when we aren’t held accountable.
I’d also like to add that I’m in my twenties, so I’m not conservative. I just think in this world no one sticks to their morals anymore, or their ethics. It’s all about doing what we want when we want without regard to other’s feelings and emotions. We should be held more accountable. It’s not like someone is holding a gun to your head to stay married. If you don’t like it, get out of it through divorce, then you can do whatever you want with your pelvis.
No one asked you to get married if you are. You entered that contract on your own so damn well honor it. This comes from a non married woman.