By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Courts will decide who will take custody of children when a parent dies, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday.
The ministry is discussing a revision of the law governing parental rights, in conjunction with other ministries, in order to prevent ``ill-prepared or inappropriate" parents gaining custody.
Under the current law, if a divorced mother or father with custodial rights dies, the surviving former spouse automatically gets the custody.
But if the bill is approved at the National Assembly, a family court will review whether the surviving parent is suitable. If deemed inappropriate, the court will decide who gains custody. The bill validates notes left by deceased parents on the preferred individual.
The attempted revision on unchallenged parental law for decades came after the death of actress Choi Jin-sil and resultant disputes over who should gain custody of her two children between her ex-husband Cho Sung-min, a former baseball player, and Choi's family.
Choi and Cho divorced in 2004. Cho then signed a contract giving up custodial and property management rights for the two children in exchange for Choi paying off his debt. But after she killed herself on Oct. 2, the children's biological father automatically regained his parental rights, triggering debates over whether the parental law is appropriate.
According to the ministry, in some Western countries, including Germany and France, a court's intervention is necessary ahead of a decision over custodial rights.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
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