Independent: Soap and sex scandal could spell the end of Korea's adultery ban
When the fading TV heartthrob Park Chul accused his actress wife of infidelity, he ignited an undignified row that has transfixed South Korea and probably mortally wounded the careers of two of the country's top stars. But the best might yet be to come: could Korea's rawest celebrity scandal end a half-century-old law banning adultery? The scandal began in true tabloid style last October when Park went public with a tirade against his wife, Ok So-ri, who he said had slept with an Italian chef and an opera singer. The accusation was accompanied by lurid stories that the jilted husband, who filed for divorce, had filmed his wife's trysts in a love hotel.
Then the spat took a turn for the worse. Ok stunned Koreans by calling a press conference in which she denied sleeping with the Italian – who she said had only given her English and cooking lessons – but admitted to a short affair with the singer. She then aired intimate details of her sham marriage, leaving her husband feeling, in his words, like a "pedestrian hit by a car". Park responded by filing a criminal suit against his wife for adultery, which is illegal in South Korea. The offence, which conservatives say is designed to protect the family, carries a two-year prison sentence, although just 47 of the 1,200 people convicted last year served jail time (most were given suspended sentences). It has stayed on the statute books since 1953 despite at least four legal challenges, but many are wondering if it can survive the fiery Ok, who has petitioned the Constitutional Court to scrap it...more...
