Recently I got a question from a U.S. citizen living in the states. He has a Korean wife and a son. He’s currently living separately from the wife and son in Korea. The wife refuses his contact with the kid. He tries to get the custody but is not sure about filing a divorce law suit right away.
Child custody has two meanings in Korea. One is a right to make decisions for the child (so-called parental authority) and the other is right to foster the child.
Getting divorced is not necessarily required to have the “right to foster” under Korean law. He can request the Korean Family Court to designate him as a sole child fosterer, maintaining his marriage. The court will consider certain factors such as child’s age, past and current life style, occupation and standard of living of both parties and so on in deciding who is going to be a right fosterer in terms of the child’s welfare.
Regarding the expense of bringing up a child, if he is designated as a sole fosterer, the wife shall pay the certain proportion of total expenses of bringing up a child.
In a case where he fails to be designated as a sole fosterer by the court, he shall be entitled to have a visitation right according to Korean law. He can request the court to prevent his wife from interrupting his regular visitation to his son.
It is, however, shall be noted that he can not ask for a sole “parental authority” without getting divorced. That is because under the Korean family law the parental authority shall be jointly exercised by both parents when they are under marriage. In this case, when he and she have disagreements in making a decision for the child, he can ask the family court to determine it on behalf of them.
© 2008 Wonil Chung, a Korean Divorce Child Custody Lawyer/Chung & Partners, a Korean Divorce Law Firm. All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owners.
