Actress Ok So-ri answers reporters' questions at a provincial court in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, after the court sentenced her to a suspended jail term for adultery, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
A regional court Wednesday sentenced actress Ok So-ri, 40, to six months in prison for adultery, which is illegal here. The sentence was suspended for two years.
In the ruling at a court in Goyang, judge Cho Min-seok said, ``The accused deserves to be blamed. But we took into account her husband's indifference to his wife and she has already gone through immense mental agony since the trial started.'' Ok's husband, Park Chul, is also a famous entertainer.
Prosecutors had sought an 18-month jail term for the actress, who admitted to having an extramarital affair with an opera singer.
After the ruling, she told reporters that she is uncertain whether or not she will appeal. ``I'm sorry for causing such a controversy,'' she said.
Her secret lover, a 38-year-old opera singer, was sentenced to a six-month jail term, also suspended for two years. The judge added that the actress's lover had felt remorse for his adultery.
Park filed for divorce in October last year after learning that his wife had had sex several times with the opera singer. On the heels of the end to their 11-year marriage, Park also filed a criminal suit against Ok for adultery.
In response, Ok sought to overturn a law that criminalizes extramarital affairs. She filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, claiming that the law violates the right to choose sexual relations. In October, the court ruled that it's constitutional.
They tied the knot in 1996 after falling in love through a popular soap opera in 1994. They have a nine-year-old daughter, whose custodial right is under Park.
Over the last three years about 1,200 people have been indicted annually on charges of adultery. But only a small number of them have actually been imprisoned.
It has been more than 50 years since the adultery law was introduced to Korea to protect women from a male-dominated society. However, the call is growing to scrap the law that critics say no longer fits a modern country with a modern civil and family court system.
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