Sexual intercourse under pretense of marriage or seduction under Korean Law is codified in Article 304 of the Criminal Act. It defines the crime, in part, as ``a person who induces a female, not habitually immoral, to engage in sexual intercourse under the pretense of marriage.¡¯¡¯ An accused convicted of the crime may receive up to two years in jail or a fine of not more than 5 million won, but usually those convicted receive little to no jail time.

The crime only punishes men who had sexual intercourse with females who are not ``habitually immoral.¡¯¡¯ A habitually immoral woman is a woman that has had numerous sexual encounters with numerous different sex partners. A prime example of a habitually immoral woman is a prostitute, but a woman that is far from chaste also may be considered by a court as habitually immoral.

Another element of the crime is that the woman must have engaged in sexual intercourse with the man because of the promise of marriage. This is the key element of the crime and obviously very difficult to prove.

The crime in Korea is rarely enforced and when it is enforced it is usually enforced against a man who is married and has sexual intercourse with a woman who doesn't know the man is married. The alleged victim must initiate the complaint and hence the prosecution cannot pursue the charges on their own motion.

Another crime in Korea that many foreigners are unaware of is the crime of adultery. Adultery codified in Article 241 of the Criminal Act states that both parties to an adulterous act may be punished by up to two years in jail if the victimized spouse chooses to file a complaint against the adulterer.

Adulterers are regularly prosecuted for this crime. They usually receive a jail term between 9 months and one year. The Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of this law.

The crime of seduction and the crime of adultery are crimes in some U.S. states, but the modern trend in the United States is not to prosecute those that violate these laws. The same situation has occurred in Korea with regard to the seduction law and is beginning to occur with regard to the adultery law.

This is cache, read story here