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South Korea
This Week in AsiaLifestyle & Culture

More South Korean women are filing for divorce, taking comfort in celebrity splits

  • Divorce is still seen as a taboo subject but attitudes are changing, in part due to celebrity splits like in the case of Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo
  • Statistics show an increase in divorce filings just after the holidays when people spend time with their extended families

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Fans gather outside the venue of South Korean actress Song Hye-Kyo and actor Song Joong-Ki's wedding in 2017. The two stars recently got divorced. Photo: AFP
David D. Lee
Just days after the harvest festival of Chuseok, one of South Korea’s two major holidays, Kim Jin-ju decided she wanted a divorce.

“I was just done living as a punchbag for my husband to let out his frustrations on,” the mother of two said.

She is one of a growing number of women walking out of their marriages in the country, which now has the highest divorce rate in East Asia and ranks 14th among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states for divorce, with China in 27th position and Japan at 28th. According to Statistics Korea, divorce rates reached 108,700 in 2018. Divorce is still seen as a taboo subject in South Korea’s conservative society, but attitudes are gradually changing as women become empowered and more people experience divorce, especially high-profile celebrities such as the “Song-Song couple”, Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, stars of the hit Korean drama Descendents of the Sun, who filed for divorce in June.

“The reasons for divorce have changed tremendously as women work these days and are not at a disadvantage when they are in the process of going through a divorce,” said Kim Se-ri (not her real name), director of a group assisting single parents.

“I think in this male-dominated society, women don’t suppress their frustrations any more.”

Domestic matters such as finances and personality differences have become the main reasons for divorce in South Korea. Photo: AP
Domestic matters such as finances and personality differences have become the main reasons for divorce in South Korea. Photo: AP

According to figures from the Supreme Court, there was a 30.8 per cent increase in divorce filings in March 2018, compared to the month prior when Korean New Year’s Day falls. This trend has been continuous from 2014 to 2017, as divorce cases increased 14.7 per cent, 39.5 per cent, 28 per cent and 13.9 per cent respectively in March for those years.

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