'Child Support Nonpayment Father Identity Disclosure' Yang Haemo "Government and National Assembly, Please Improve the System"

The Child Support Resolution Group (Yanghaemo), a group of victims who have not received child support, held a press conference in front of the Seoul Western District Court on the 18th, urging the establishment of a system to resolve child support issues.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The Child Support Resolution Group (Yanghaemo), a group of victims who have not received child support, held a press conference in front of the Seoul Western District Court on the 18th, urging the establishment of a system to resolve child support issues.

At the press conference held in front of the Western District Court that morning, Yanghaemo stated, "The issue of child support, which is a matter of children's right to survival, is not something that individuals can resolve on their own," and added, "The government must step up and actively work to resolve this issue." The press conference was attended by members of Yanghaemo, child support non-payment victim Park In-ok, Yanghaemo representative Kang Min-seo, and Yanghaemo advisory lawyer Lee Jun-young.

The press conference was held just before the trial of Kang Min-seo, the representative of Yanghaemo. In May of last year, Kang posted the personal information of Kim, the ex-husband of child support non-payment victim Park In-ok, on the group’s website. In August of last year, Kim filed a defamation lawsuit against Kang.

According to victim Park, Kim left the house in 1998 when they had a 6-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Since then, Park has not received any child support for 22 years after her ex-husband left, and they divorced in 2006. Kim even came to visit with their son and daughter asking for child support, but Park reported him to the police. Park lamented, "After multiple lawsuits, I received a child support payment order and got divorced, but even after about 20 years, neither I nor my children have received a single penny of that child support."

Lawyer Lee Jun-young said on site, "Under the current system, non-payment of child support cannot be criminally punished," and added, "The National Assembly, which is responsible for legislation, must take action." He continued, "As seen in overseas cases (France), criminalizing non-payment of child support is not unreasonable at all, and in countries like Korea where widespread non-payment occurs, it is reasonable to consider a specific legislative obligation on this matter."

Representative Kang said, "We are conducting a national petition to gain public consent and support regarding the resolution of child support," and added, "I hope that the cruel act of abandoning children, who are the hope of the future, twice by failing to pay child support any longer, will end." She also stated, "The issue that non-payment of child support threatens the survival of children but cannot be criminally punished must also be resolved."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.