An ex-husband who showed photos of his ex-wife engaging in acts of infidelity to their children had his alimony cut by a family court that condemned him for his "inappropriate behavior" in a rare divorce ruling, court officials said Monday.
The Seoul Family Court ordered that the ex-wife's alimony obligation be substantially reduced to 20 million won ($ 17,500), saying the husband also has responsibility for the divorce. A lower court previously handed down 30 million won.
The family court, however, did not identify the couple by name.
"The wife holds greater responsibility for the breakup of the marriage," Judge Son Wang-suk said in the ruling. "However, the husband also acted inappropriately by making their children listen to video footage and see pictures of their mother engaging in sexual intercourse with another man."
The couple, who tied the knot in 1990's, have had conflicts mainly driven by the wife's constant questioning of the husband's extramarital affairs, the court records stated.
Their rocky marriage hit rock bottom when the video footage fell into the hands of the husband, it added. The husband's beatings and blackmail against his wife led to irreconcilable differences between the couple, and eventually led to a divorce.
"It is common to set alimony at around 30 to 40 million won," a court official said. "The court's decision means that the court deemed the husband's acts were wrong."
The report by Statistics Korea showed 114,300 couples went their separate ways last year. A separate survey showed that some 15.5 percent split up due to a spouse's affair in the 2000s.(Yonhap)