By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a foreign national has the right to ask the prosecution to prosecute his or her spouse if the latter has an extramarital affair in Korea, where adultery is illegal.
It means regardless of nationality, those who have a sexual relationship with a married person here can be subject to the law. Violators face up to two years in prison.
The top court upheld a lower court's ruling that held a Canadian citizen's husband guilty of having sexual intercourse with a married Korean woman.
The husband was accused of three charges ㅡ committing adultery, physical assault and threatening his spouse with a blunt weapon. According to the court statement, the 60-year-old Korean threatened his Canadian wife with a blunt weapon and assaulted her in March 2004 and had a sexual relationship with a married Korean woman in June 2006.
However, the top court returned the case to the appellate court to reexamine the two other charges.
In the first trial, a provincial court found him guilty on all three counts, handing down an eight-month prison sentence. The appellate court reduced the jail term to six months suspended for one year.
The husband appealed the case to the top court, claiming his Canadian wife has no right to accuse him of an extramarital affair since adultery is not against the law in Canada.
``Regardless of nationality, everyone on Korean territory must abide by Korea's laws since they are based on the principle of extraterritorial privilege for jurisdiction,'' said Judge Koh Hyun-chul in the ruling. ``Thus, regardless of his wife's nationality, she can accuse him of adultery.''