Child custody in South Korea

Married parents exercise parental authority jointly.

The mother has it. The father can share it after he acknowledges the child, by agreement of the parents or a court decision.

The unmarried father, in one line: The mother has it; the father needs a step: a joint declaration, registration, agreement, or living with the mother at the birth.

Divorcing parents must agree on who will raise the child, on contact and on child support, before the divorce is accepted. If they cannot agree, the family court decides in the child's best interests and can set the parenting arrangement.

The court takes the child's views into account according to age and maturity.

Where parents share parental authority, a move abroad needs both parents' consent or a court's permission.

South Korea is a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, which lets a parent ask for a child wrongly taken to another country to be returned. It works only with countries that have accepted its accession, so check the other country on the treaty status table.

South Korea belongs to the Civil law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the South Korea legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in South Korea? →
Divorce rate and trend in South Korea →

• Korea Legislation Research Institute: Civil Act