South Korea’s top court Monday denied a man’s request for the cancellation of his marriage in a situation where the bride had not told him that she had been raped and given birth before they wed.

In a suit filed by a 41-year-old man surnamed Kim, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed earlier rulings that had ordered a nullification of the marriage and demanded the 26-year-old Vietnamese woman pay him 3 million won ($2,430) in alimony.


“A person’s history about childbirth should be seen as private,” the judge said in the verdict. “Marriage cannot be canceled just because she did not tell her husband about her history in advance.“

The Korean man and the Vietnamese woman tied the knot in February 2012 in Vietnam. The woman entered Korea later that year and was raped by her father-in-law.

As a result of the trial over the rape, the father-in-law received a seven-year jail sentence, but the ordeal uncovered her past experience of childbirth and rape in her country.

The Vietnamese woman reportedly was kidnapped and raped by a Vietnamese man when she was 13 years old. She was then forced to marry him, but ran away after 8 months and gave birth to a son. The son was taken away, she said.

After her Korean husband learned about her experience, he filed a suit against her, seeking 30 million won in financial compensation and annulment of the marriage. The man claimed she should have told him about her past before they were married.

Under the marriage act, it is possible to file for the cancellation of marriage when the marriage is considered to be fradulent.

The woman filed a countersuit, taking issue with her Korean husband neglecting the fact that she had been raped by her father-in-law. She demanded 10 million won in compensation.

The lower courts ruled in favor of the husband, saying that one’s history of childbirth is a decisive factor to take into account in one’s decision to get married.

The case will be tried again in a lower court. 

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)