S.Korean divorces quicker and cheaper than a movie

SEOUL, Aug 24 (Reuters) Monday morning is the busiest time of the week at divorce courts in South Korea as couples queue to end their marriages after bouts of weekend bickering.

''Too many angry couples come to court for a divorce after an argument erupted over the weekend,'' Judge Yoo Jae-bok of the Taejon Family Court told Reuters.

''They need counselling, not an on-the-spot divorce.'' On Monday mornings in particular, angry couples storm into divorce courts with tales of annoying relatives, husbands they complain will never earn decent salaries and wives accused of bleeding bank accounts dry.

The couples are given forms and clerks are on hand to help them fill in the paperwork.

The fee is just a few thousand won (a few dollars), a paltry sum often waived by the courts, and the divorce can take effect immediately, the moment the papers are signed.

The number of divorces in South Korea has almost doubled since 1995. Social stigmas that used to make couples reluctant to break up have faded as the country has become more prosperous and less bound by tradition.

Compounding the problem is a divorce law that enables couples to end their marriages on a whim. Getting a divorce can take less time and is cheaper than a night at the movies.

But some judges want to put an end to a quick and easy divorce procedure they say has caused South Korea's divorce rate to become one of the highest in Asia.

''We judges can do something in our courts to reduce these types of divorces,'' Yoo said.

COOLING OFF Yoo is among a group of judges in South Korea who are trying to lower the divorce rate by making couples observe a cooling-off period to consider the implications of a divorce on children and relatives before they can end their marriage.

The judges demand that some couples seek counselling before calling it quits or at least wait a week or two before signing the paperwork.

It appears their efforts might be having some impact. The number of divorces in South Korea, which stood at 68,300 in 1995 and rose to 157,100 in 2003, has begun to drop. In 2005 there were 128,500 divorces in the country of almost 49 million people.

But the unofficial, sometimes unorthodox efforts of South Korean judges can be in vain as they are not enshrined in law.

''I asked one couple to think about their decision for a week, and the man started shouting at me and blaming me and stormed out saying he would find another judge,'' Yoo recounted.

Ruling party lawmaker Lee Eun-young hopes to put the full force of the law behind judges' efforts to help couples reconcile before it is too late.

She submitted a bill in November 2005 that would require most couples to wait three months after submitting papers in court before the divorce came through. The legislation is expected to be presented to parliament at the end of the year.

''We desperately need a cool-down policy to stop married couples from facing a sudden catastrophe by deciding on a hasty divorce. We have to protect the welfare of their children,'' she wrote in her proposed legislation.

REUTERS SSC BD0928