An Overlooked Question in Affair-Partner Lawsuits
If your spouse had an
affair with a Korean national, can you sue for damages? And if the marriage
ends in divorce while that lawsuit is still pending, does the amount of
compensation change?
As a lawyer, I've handled
a number of cases where an affair-partner lawsuit and a divorce case were
pursued together. Recently, though, a column by a divorce attorney in a Korean
media outlet got me thinking about a question that hasn't received much
attention here yet: what happens when the unfaithful spouse isn't Korean, but
had an affair with someone who is? In other words, when an affair crosses
national lines, can a foreign spouse still bring what's known in Korea as an
“affair-partner lawsuit” — a civil claim against the person their spouse
cheated with?
A recent column in the
Korean outlet Prime Economy raised a related issue. It described a familiar
pattern: someone discovers their spouse has been unfaithful but doesn't file
for divorce right away, often because of young children, or because they're still
hoping the marriage can be saved. Instead, they sue only the affair partner for
damages. But sometimes, while that lawsuit is still pending, the affair
continues or the marriage deteriorates further, and the couple ends up
divorcing anyway. The column asked a fair question: if the couple was still
married when the affair-partner lawsuit was filed but divorced by the time it's
decided, does that change how much the affair partner has to pay?
As the column noted,
Korea's Supreme Court has held that when a third party has an affair with a
married person, and that affair undermines the couple's shared life or
interferes with the marriage while causing the other spouse emotional distress,
it generally amounts to a tortious act — a civil wrong the injured spouse can
sue over.
Kim Kwang-woong, “If You Divorce During an Affair-Partner
Lawsuit, Can You Recover More in Damages?,” Prime Economy, Aug. 28, 2026.
The column's main point
was that once a couple actually divorces during the lawsuit, the amount of
compensation can shift. Courts look at the full picture — how long the affair
lasted, how serious it was, and the circumstances that led to the divorce — in
setting the damages figure. That's genuinely useful information for anyone
thinking about bringing this kind of case.
What If the Spouse Is Foreign, But the Affair Partner
Is Korean?
Reading that column got me
thinking about a related but different scenario. There are certainly foreign
nationals who are married to a Korean spouse and living in Korea, and there are
also foreign couples where one spouse, while visiting Korea, had an affair with
a Korean national — damaging or even ending their marriage.
As international marriages
become more common, I suspect quite a few foreign spouses have found themselves
in exactly this kind of situation. The trouble is that many of them may not
even realize they have the legal right to sue the Korean affair partner for
damages.
Here's the short answer:
your spouse's nationality is not a barrier to bringing an affair-partner
lawsuit in Korea. As mentioned above, the Supreme Court's rule is that a third
party who has an affair with a married person — undermining the marriage and
causing the other spouse emotional harm — has generally committed a tort. That
rule doesn't change just because one spouse happens to hold a foreign passport.
If the affair partner is a Korean national and the affair took place in Korea,
Korean courts should have jurisdiction, which means it appears possible to
bring a damages claim against the affair partner in a Korean court.
Losing the Chance to Sue, Simply for Lack of
Information
In my experience advising
clients, foreign spouses often give up on an affair-partner lawsuit — not
because the law is against them, but simply because they don't have enough
information. Korea's legal system can be unfamiliar territory, and it's genuinely
difficult to figure out which law firms actually handle affair-partner or
divorce cases on a regular basis. Add a language barrier on top of that, and
the whole process can feel overwhelming before it even starts.
As a result, I've seen
cases where someone had a perfectly valid claim for damages but missed the
window to bring it, or gave up on the claim altogether. Given how the statute
of limitations works, and how important it is to gather evidence early, that's
a genuinely unfortunate outcome.
Why the Affair-Partner Lawsuit and the Divorce Case
Should Be Prepared Together
As that column points out,
when a couple divorces while an affair-partner lawsuit is still pending, the
court looks at the full timeline in deciding damages — when the affair began,
what efforts were made to save the marriage, and how the separation and divorce
came about. In other words, the affair-partner lawsuit and the divorce case
aren't really separate matters. They need to be prepared together, as part of
one continuous story.
I've handled a number of
cases where I managed both the affair-partner lawsuit and the divorce case
together, as a single matter. If your marriage has been damaged, or is at risk,
because of your spouse's affair, and you're not sure which law firm to trust
with your case, feel free to reach out to my firm. This is especially true if
your spouse is a foreign national and Korea's legal system and procedures feel
unfamiliar — in that situation, it helps enormously to think through the
affair-partner lawsuit and the divorce case together from the very beginning.
In Closing
To inquire about litigation in Korea, please contact: solon2025@naver.com
