Legislative Response
The Ministry of Justice presented a Reform Bill to the National Assembly on 13 November 1998, including the repeal of Article 809. In the face of fierce opposition from Confucian groups, Article 809 was excluded from the bill by the Sub-committee on Law of the National Assembly, despite the 31 December 1998 deadline imposed by the Constitutional Court.
On 17 December 1999, the Sub-committee stated that:
In view of the national sentiment which places a great deal of importance on bloodline the abolition of the law prohibiting marriages between people with the same surnames and same ancestral seats is premature.
As the term of the 15th National Assembly ended in May 2000, the Reform Bill automatically died.
Following the April 2004 elections, the Ministry of Justice reintroduced its Reform Bill. On 2 March 2005, the National Assembly passed the Korean Family Law Reform Bill, which came into effect on 31 March of the same year. Among the amendments to Korean family law included a reformed version of Article 809:
Marriage may not be allowed between parties whose relationship of blood relative exists within the eighth degree (including the blood relatives for the real-adopted child kept before real-adoption).
Marriage may not be allowed between parties if either of them is or was the spouse of blood relative within the sixth degree of relationship, or if either of them is or was the blood relatives within sixth degree of relationship of the spouse, or if either of them is or was the spouse of blood relatives by affinity within fourth degree of relationship of the spouse.
Marriage may not be allowed between parties whose relationship of blood relative existed within the sixth degree of adoptive parents lineage and within the fourth degree of adoptive parents affinity.
In the context of the above law, the term degree, called chon (Hangul: 촌, Hanja: 寸) in Korean, refers to the distance of kinship between two persons. Siblings are considered to be separated by two chons, while children and parents are separated by one chon. Accordingly, a relationship between first cousins would be separated by four chons, and second cousins by six.
Read more about this topic: Article 809 Of The Korean Civil Code
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