South Korea Decriminalizes Adultery, Shares of Condom Companies Rise
South Korea has dropped a 62-year-old law that made adultery an offense punishable by up to two years in prison, causing shares of a condom company to rise.
"It has become difficult to say that there is a consensus on whether adultery should be punished as a criminal offense," five of the court's nine justices said in a joint statement, according to the New York Times. "It should be left to the free will and love of people to decide whether to maintain marriage, and the matter should not be externally forced through a criminal code."
The law affected more than 5,400 people who have been charged with adultery since 2008, when the court earlier upheld the legislation, according to court law.
"Even if adultery should be condemned as immoral, state power should not intervene in individuals' private lives," said presiding justice Park Han-Chul.
The law stipulated that having sex with a married person who is not your spouse was punishable by up to two years in prison. Nearly 53,000 South Koreans have been indicted on adultery charges since 1985, but prison terms have been rare.
"Recently, it was extremely rare for a person to serve a prison term for adultery,"said Lim Ji-bong, a law professor at Sogang University in Seoul. "The number of indictments has decreased as charges are frequently dropped."
After the ruling, shares in Unidus Corp, which makes latex products, including condoms, soared to the 15 percent daily limit gain. Hyundai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a maker of morning-after birth control pills and pregnancy tests, ended up 9.7 percent.
