Korea: Caught between Modernity and Tradition

Photo source: The New York Times

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a popular actress who tried to overturn the country's law that criminalizes adultery be thrown in jail for a year and a half for having an affair, local media reported.

South Korean enacted its adultery law more than 50 years ago to protect women who had few rights in the male-dominated society but critics say now it is a draconian measure no longer fit for a country with an advanced civil and family court system.

Actress Ok So-ri's case has created a sensation in South Korea after she admitted to an affair with a singer and called on the country's Constitutional Court to overturn the statute that can send a person to jail for up to two years for adultery.

"The accuser (her husband) wanted a severe sentence," prosecutors said in court as to why they are seeking 18 months in jail for Ok, Yonhap news agency reported. Prosecutors were not available for comment.

Ok's lawyers were also not immediately available for comment but they have said in a petition to Constitutional Court: "The adultery law ... has degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage."

Last month, the Constitutional Court said adultery damaged the social order and therefore was a criminal offence.

It is rare for courts to jail adulterers but that has not stopped several thousand angry spouses from filing criminal complaints each year.

Critics have said a better compromise might be to allow spouses just to sue for compensation in civil court.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Kim Junghyun; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Romantic Asian

Korean actor and model Kim Ji-hun

I saw this ad on Craigslist. I think it's the poster's genuine feelings... Very beautiful sentiments indeed. Ladies, isn't this what you really, really want?

TALL ASIAN GUY WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR - 34 (SANTA CLARA)

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Reply to: pers-922014162@craigslist.org ^[?]
Date: 2008-11-16, 6:35PM PST


I am having a bad day at work. I get in my car and drive somewhere to have lunch. I call up my wife and tell her about my day. After a few sentences of telling her about my day we just starting talking about nothing and immediately I start laughing and she starts laughing. We laugh and joke around and talk. I realize how lucky I am to have this person in my life.

To be married to my best friend. Someone who (sic) I love talking to and spending time with even if we are doing nothing like running weekend errands. Or we are at the airport sitting at the gate and there is an hour to kill until the flight takes off. We just sit there holding hands and people watch and talk and goof around and the hour flyes by in a minute. The whole time I look at other couples and they are just sitting there and not talking or they are getting restless waiting for the flight.

Imagine hanging out with a group of people and your significant other is talking to others. She is having a good time and she is friendly to everyone. Later on your friends comment on how much fun they had talking to her and how cool she it. You realize how lucky you are.

Ever date someone and you can tell that your friends just thought that they were 'okay'? Well I want someone where she will be proud to date me and I am proud to date her. It would be great to think so highly of someone. I am not talking about physical appearance.

I imagine how good it would be to wake up next to my best friend and starting my day talking to her, goofing around and having fun. I imagine waking up on a Saturday morning and going to the store to get fresh donuts and bagels for my kids. I imagine how fun it would be to take my middle school kids to the mall to buy back to school clothes. I imagine laying in bed at night and just talking about life and the things we want to accomplish. I guess as I get older I think about different things.

Sorry for rambling. I am just typing random thoughts that come into my head.

I am honestly looking to meet that special someone to have a long term relationship with. I look back over my years of dating and I think about the meaningless relationships that I've had and the long meaningful ones and the meaningful ones are the ones that I am the most proud of. They are the ones that really make me think about what is real in this thing called dating.

I am a professional asian male who is seeking someone for a long term relationship. I am an honest, easy going, guy who likes to have fun. I work hard but make it a point to play hard. Life is short and I like to enjoy myself. I have never been married and I don’t have any kids.

I am seeking someone who is honest, fun, intelligent, classy, has a great sense of humor, and likes to laugh. Someone who is also easygoing, likes to have fun and try new things but is also serious when she has to be. Most of all I am seeking someone who has a good heart and is a good person.

In terms of physical appearance I am 34, not a FOB, 6'1" 190lbs, I go to the gym several times a week. Hey! No beer belly here! Oh and by the way my teeth are white and straight. :)

My female friends would say that I dress well, and that I have nice shoes. I figured I should put that line in since girls check out a guy from top to bottom. :)

I am hoping you are reading this and think to yourself,
'Whew! Glad to get that out of the way instead of having to meet him for coffee and finding out too late that he has bad teeth and bad shoes and then I have to sit through a 20 minute cup of coffee with him.'

I guess I am a funny guy. I promise that if we hang out I can get you to laugh and have a good time.

To Fair Daisy

Dedicated to D from Lost in Emotions

By Nicholas Gordon

You don't love me, but ah! do I love you!
It kills me that right now you have another!
Each day I watch the antics of you two
Happy hopping birds and say, why bother?
But I am chained to you as fish to sea,
Or as the moon to Earth, or Earth to sun.
The thought of letting go so tortures me
That I would rather let my anguish run.
I know that if I wait you will be mine.
Such love as this must sweep all walls away!
I am your natural light, and I will shine
Till due rotation turns your night to day.
Until then, this sorrow will remain:
My hope of joy must be my source of pain.

daisies

By Lost in Emotion

I bring thee daisies because it is thy name sake.
Thy beauty is perfection: skin white and smooth as fresh milk;
Lips full and luscious and cherry red;
Body so curved as to epitomize the hour glass;
And bosoms so generous never seen before in thy race.

I am cursed as thou art fortunate.
I am wretched as thou art gleeful and carefree.
I am hideous as thou art fetching.
I am forlorn as thou art cheerful.
I am forsaken 'cause thy beau is embraced by thy arms...