TEMPO.CO, Seoul - South Korea's Constitutional Court finally revoked a 60-year-old constitution outlawing adultery, which subject violators to two years in prison.
The court stated that the 1953 law was unconstitutional. "Even if adultery should be condemned as immoral, state power should not intervene in individuals' private lives," said presiding justice Park Han-Chul.
For the past six years, nearly 5,500 people have been charged for adultery, including nearly 900 people in 2014. But the numbers had been decreasing, with cases that end in prison terms rarely occur.
As much as 216 people were imprisoned in 2004, but the number went down to 42 by 2008. Since then, only 22 people were left behind bars.
The downward trend partly reflects the change in societal trends in the country, where modernization often clashes with traditionally conservative norms.
"Public conceptions of individuals' rights in their sexual lives have undergone changes," Park said.
THE GUARDIAN
