By Lee Kyung-min
A man, who is keeping his children in Korea without consent from his wife living in Japan, should return them to her in accordance with international law, a court ruled Monday.
The Seoul Family Court ruled in favor of a Korean-Japanese woman, 39, who sought the return of her two children ― aged eight and 10 ― from her Korean husband, 41, who brought them to Korea last year.
“The husband illegally took the children from Japan and brought them to Korea, thereby violating the wife’s custody of the children,” the court said. If the decision is confirmed at higher courts, the father will be ordered to return the children to their mother in Japan.
The couple married in 2005 in Japan, but separated in 2013. They have not divorced, but had agreed that the mother would keep custody of the children.
But the father said that they should come to Korea to see their grandfather who had been ill. The mother sent the children to her husband, but he then cut off all contact with her.
This is the first ruling made in accordance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which was designed to return children, illegally moved across borders by one parent unilaterally, to the country where they originally belong. The convention is applied to children under 16.
Korea signed the treaty in December 2012 following an increase in international marriages. As of February 2015, 93 countries have joined the convention including the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Germany and Japan.