By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

A new civil law went into effect Sunday, empowering a court to seize the assets or salary of a spouse failing to share expenses for the raising of their children after divorce.

Under the law, it will be legally binding for divorcees to shoulder the expenses of bringing up children. In the past, there were no legal grounds to enforce payments if a spouse did not keep his or her promise to help pay for the costs.

The law dictates that if a spouse fails to pay the agreed expenses twice in a row, without adequate reason, the court will issue an order to enforce deductions from their wages.

In the case of the self-employed, assets will be taken as collateral if they continue to fail to pay. Repeat offenders will also be fined.

In addition, the court will not finalize divorce agreements until spouses sign an accord detailing payments for the cost of childrearing. The documents will then be permanently kept for any possible future dispute, the court said.

The Supreme Court said Sunday the revised law will strengthen the obligations of divorcees for their children's expenses.

"So far, many legal disputes have been raised since the child support settlement was non-binding legally," said Shin Dong-hoon, a spokesman for the top court. "We believe the new law will help those bringing up children."

According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, an estimated 173 million won ($140,000) is needed on average in Korea to raise a child to the age of 18.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr