South Korea allows defectors from North to divorce

SEOUL, Mar 2 (Reuters) North Korean defectors whose marital status had been in limbo since arriving in South Korea will be allowed to divorce the spouses they left behind due to a law that went into effect this week.

South Korean law had previously made it almost impossible for the defectors to divorce and start a new life by marrying someone else.

''Unless they had the luxury of defecting together and arriving together with their spouse in South Korea, there was just no way to get married legally,'' said Douglas Shin, an advocate for North Korean defectors.

Shin said it was a violation of human rights for these defectors to be denied a second chance at marriage.

Even though South Korea's Constitution states Seoul is the government over the entire Korean peninsula, without the change, defectors would probably have had to wait until the unification of the two Koreas to divorce, legal experts said.

Under the law that went into effect March 1, a defector has to ask the South's Unification Ministry to verify that his or her spouse does not reside in the country.

The defector can then take that verification to family court and file a divorce petition. The court will post a notice on the Internet and rule on the request if there are no objections.

The Seoul Family Court said as of the end of last year, it had 232 cases on file of defectors seeking divorce.

One of those applying is Kim Sun-hee, Yonhap news agency reported. The 34-year-old who runs a kiosk in Seoul and came to South Korea in 2004 via China, said she has not seen her North Korean husband since 1999.

''I thought things would end just by coming to the South,'' Kim told Yonhap. ''I was too simple.'' Some lawmakers worried whether it was appropriate to grant a divorce without the spouse in the North being aware of it or even weighing in -- or what could happen if the spouse defected later and found their better half had re-married.

There were also concerns that the Internet postings for the divorce could make it easier for North Korean agents to track down defectors in the South -- many of whom conceal their identities to protect themselves and relatives in the North.

North and South Korea, still technically at war, do not have direct postal service or telephone connections for their citizens.

Most North Korean defectors end up in South Korea after passing through a third country -- typically China. More than 10,000 defectors have been granted South Korean citizenship.

Shin said those who defect usually plan for it for a long time and inform their spouses of their decision to leave.

REUTERS SHB RAI1250