[EDITORIAL] Matters of privacy

Criminal charges cannot be pressed against a man having had sexual intercourse with a woman on a promise to marry her when he fails to make good on his word. The Constitutional Court has decided that such an act does not constitute a criminal offense any longer.

An article of the criminal code under which reneging on such a promise was an offense punishable with up to two years in prison or up to 5 million won in fines was ruled unconstitutional on Thursday. In a 6-to-3 decision, the Constitutional Court overturned its 2002 decision upholding the article as constitutional.



The latest ruling is consistent with an opinion from the Ministry of Gender Equality, which claimed in a report to the court that the article denigrated women by implying that they failed to exercise their right to decision making properly. As the ministry rightly pointed out, the article went against the principle of gender equality.

The new decision undoubtedly reflects the changing mores among Koreans, many of them now regarding consensual sex as a matter of privacy with which the state has no right to meddle. As the court said in its ruling, sex and love are indeed matters of privacy that are beyond the bounds of the law.

Even in the absence of the latest ruling, the article was rendered virtually invalid. During the past 10 years, only 6.4 percent of men against whom criminal charges were pressed were actually prosecuted. Those convicted numbered no more than three or four each year.

The ruling may have an impact on adultery, an offense punishable with a maximum of two years in prison. Given that the court contested the fate of the article on adultery closely when it ruled it constitutional last year, it may overturn its earlier decision in the near future, as it did this time.