Korean Father Jailed for Six Month for Non-Payment of Korean Child Support Order

A Korean court on Jeju Island in April of 2025 sentenced a Korean father to six months in prison for non-payment of KRW 24,000,000 of child support under Article 27, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the Act on Ensuring and Supporting Enforcement of Child Support (Child Support Enforcement Act of Korea). The Child Support Enforcement Act of Korea stipulates that “A person who fails to pay child support obligations within one year from the date of receipt of an order without a justifiable reason despite having received an order shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year or a fine not exceeding 10 million won.”

For more information on enforcing of Child Support Orders please see: Korean Child Support Basics Explained and Obtaining Child Support in Korea from a Deadbeat Father (or Mother).

Criminal Sanctions for Not Paying
Korean Child Support

Facts

1. The Defendant-Father received a court order in September 2018 to pay KRW 24 million in unpaid child support. The Defendant-Father failed to comply with the order and was sentenced to ten days in jail.
2. In this follow-on case to the original criminal case, the Jeju District Court noted, in part, that: “The defendant paid small amounts of child support several times in the original trial, and deposited 5 million won and 2 million won on two occasions in the current trial, but the period of not paying child support is very long, and the amount of child support that has not been paid up to this day is not small . . . The [Mother} seems to have suffered for a long time while raising the child alone, and the defendant seems to have had little intention of paying child support from the beginning.”

Korean courts, over the past few years, increased criminal penalties for non-custodial parents not paying Korean child support. We shall update the reader when additional cases are handed down. If you are interested in learning more about Korean family law and the enforcement of Korean child support awards please see: IPG’s Korean Family Law Archive.

by Sean Hayes

Sean Hayes is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. Sean is ranked, for Korea, as one of only a few non-Korean lawyers as a Top Attorney by AsiaLaw. Sean is regularly quoted by leading international media sources, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, France 24, and Bloomberg.

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