Adultery Scandal at Korea’s Elite Law School Ends in Suicide

[uledy.livejournal.com]

On October 2nd, an adultery scandal that electrified the country ended with a court case and mourning. The Judicial Research and Training Institute, the most highly respected school in the country, was the scene of a sordid affair between two of its elite students. Among Koreans, there was deep disgust that the country’s most gifted scholars could have committed the betrayal, public insults, and harassment that were exposed in the beginning of early September. A blow by blow of the affair is below, but the best summary may have been written by the mother-in-law of the husband who had the affair. Determined to punish her son-in-law and his lover, the mother-in-law stood outside the main gate of the Institute with a sign describing their shocking behavior.




The mother of the deceased protests in front of the Judicial Training and Research Institute, her sign reads, “A student here, [name obscured] made my daughter hang herself and commit suicide!! She had an affair with my son-in-law for over eight months and then even called up my daughter and told her all about the sex! After abusing and driving my daughter to kill herself, this woman has no right to become a legal professional!!! This woman [name obscured] just thought about herself even after killing my daughter, she will never be forgiven! How dare she become a legal profesional.
Judicial Research and Training Institute expels male student, suspends female student for three months for “inappropriate behavior that harmed the dignity of the institution”.

The JRTI recently decided to expel the man at the center of the ‘adultery scandal’, the strongest punishment possible available under its regulations. The Institute gave the female student who was involved in the affair a three-month suspension.

[Note: In South Korea, anyone who wishes to become a judge, prosecutor, or lawyer, three of the most prestigious jobs available, must first pass the notoriously difficult JRTI entrance exam and study within the institute for two years. All students, upon graduation, can choose to one of the three career paths and expect to have a secure, respected career for the rest of his or her life.Korea is currently changing from this system to an American-style law school format.]

On October 2nd, the JRTI Disciplinary Committee announced the punishment for the two students according to their violation of the National Public Service Law, Article 63. In a statement from the Institute, “Student A hid his marriage status from the female student in his class while he engaged in intimate relations with her, leading to an inappropriate relationship that harmed the dignity of the institution…While Student B (the woman) did not know of Student A’s marriage status before meeting him, her behavior after Student A revealed his marriage, in which she exposed the affair to Student A’s wife, also harmed the dignity of the institution.”

Punishment of students at the JRTI can take the form of expulsion, suspension, loss of salary, or formal reprimand. The only previous time that a student was expelled was in 2003, when a student took pictures of a naked woman, who was not a student, and stole her jewelry. In that case, the student was also arrested. Representatives for the Institute said that, since their students were in training to become officers of the law, they had to be held to the highest standards of behavior. They added that because the students’ actions reflected negatively on the institute, severe disciplinary actions were unavoidable. The committee said that they took into account the fact that the woman, Student B, did not end her relationship with Student A even after finding out that he was married influenced their decision.

According to the results of the JRTI’s investigation, B [the female student] did not show an intention to induce A [the male student] to divorce his wife, although B sent copies of her text messages with A to his wife. Investigation records show that A began a romantic relationship with B in August of 2011, then confessed to B in February of 2013 about his marriage. A told B that he planned to divorce his wife and continued the relationship with B, but then told B in April of 2013 that he wanted to break up with her. B, feeling betrayed, called C and revealed the affair. After C began to insult B, B sent a copy of messages she had exchanged with A to C. Later, B met with C’s mother and said she would set the love triangle straight. The report does not state that B called C and told her to get a divorce or mentioned anything about continuing the romantic relationship with A.



Screenshot of the messages sent between the two students which mentioned their relationship, which the female student sent to the wife. In this image, the male student says, “Even if we are punished for adultery, I want to come clean about this.”
According to the JRTI, A apologized to C after his affair was revealed and even went so far as to set a date for their wedding. The couple had been together since the beginning of law school, however they had only made a legal marriage, rather than an entire wedding ceremony. However, by June, other factors arose that negatively impacted their marriage life, which led to them living separately by the middle of June and soon after filing for divorce. In July, C committed suicide. The JRTI explained that A and C’s decision to seek a divorce was completely separate from any disagreement over excessive dowry, [혼수]. [Note: other articles about the case mentioned that A had demanded a large sum, $930,000, from the parents of the bride for the customary wedding contribution]. A representative from the Institute stated that “this is an issue related to the reputation of the deceased and as such we will not comment”.

The expelled male student will not be able to graduate from the JRTI, and will have to return to attend a law school and take the bar exam if he intends to work as a lawyer.


Article from Money Today:
Judicial Research and Training Institute Launches Investigation into Claims that Female Student in Adultery Case Tutored Illegally
The Judicial Research and Training Institute (JRTI) student at the center of the ‘JRTI Adultery Scandal’, nicknamed Ms. B, 28, has made headlines again after the institute received a tip that she had been working illegally as a tutor. Since it is illegal for current JRTI students to tutor others on the admissions process, the institute has launched an investigation into the incident.

On October 4th, a JRTI representative announced, “After receiving documents on September 30th that indicated that Ms. B had been involved in illegal tutoring activities, the disciplinary committee confirmed the details of the case in a meeting…Since the committee believes that additional details are needed, they scheduled further investigation for the near future.”

The representative added, “the investigation is proceeding as quickly as possible, if misconduct is discovered, then we will take the appropriate measures.” The representative did not announce whether or not Ms. B had admitted to the charge against her.

Online, netizens have raised questions about the timing of the new investigation, referring to the fax that was sent to the JRTI and the complaint to the Supreme Court in the middle of September. “The JRTI was aware of the the illegal tutoring allegations even before the adultery allegations surfaced, the disciplinary committee tried to look the other way to protect one of their own.”

One netizen in particular revealed that the complaint went to the Supreme Court on the morning of the 16th of September, while the same information was sent to the JRTI in the afternoon of the same day. Only on the 30th did the JRTI confirm that it was aware of the illegal tutoring activities.

The representative for the JRTI stated, “in a situation like this, confirmation takes time…When something like this is happening, where faxes and phone calls are coming simultaneously to the Administrative Office, to professors, and to supplementary offices, it is difficult to confirm how tips are progressing.”

If the investigation from the JRTI finds that Ms. B was carrying out tutoring illegally, there will inevitably be additional punishment. Since students at the JRTI are special government employees, under the National Public Service Law, section 64 (dual employment and working for profit), they are unable to work for profit in any area besides their official duties without the specific permission of their employer.

There has been no word about what the specific additional punishment would be for Ms. B. She has already received the maximum punishment of three months suspension in connection with the adultery incident. Since there has never been a precedent of a JRTI student receiving additional punishment, there is no guide to how the institute will punish Ms. B for this misconduct.

A representative from the JRTI said, “Since JRTI students do not usually create problems like this, this is an exceptional case… [When the student receives additional punishment] there is no standard for the length of the punishment.”

Suspicions about Ms. B’s illegal tutoring arose after advertisements for tutoring, allegedly from Ms. B, were identified online.

Claiming to have successfully passed the 52nd Annual Bar Exam, the author of the online ad wrote a post online, saying “Currently, I am teaching a law school student and a student preparing for the first round of the exam. I also have experience serving on the evaluation committee for the first round of the 52nd Bar Exam. I am also currently correcting the practice tests from a second round student from a top university…I offer my methods, knowledge, and information. I can help practice writing answers and provide detailed critiques upon request. Please contact me.” The ad was uploaded in July of this year.

Ms. B has attracted furor from netizens after she engaged in inappropriate relations with a male student in her class and then informed his wife of their adultery. Following Ms. B’s actions, the man’s wife committed suicide.

Selected Netizen Comments:
tpfmzpxlszk:
This homewrecker doesn’t know when to stop. The pathetic institute blindly tried to cover for one of their own [lit. “the crayfish is on the crab’s side”]

민주고양이님:
They committed adultery together, but they only expelled the man. Expel that bitch as well.

민들레성전1:
she’s getting what she deserves!!

iloveeungi758:
As if committing murder and adultery wasn’t enough, she went and broke the law ke ke ke Congrats on your hat trick….You are the ‘best’, [name of female student redacted]

swtbroch:
Isn’t the most unbelievable thing that this woman was going to become a judge, oversee cases, and work as a lawyer? If she later changes her name, gets plastic surgery, and works as a judge, who could know? Then how unfair would that be to people who are tried in her court? This is crazy.

인육장수 조선족:
The guy loses his position…this bitch is just suspended for a few months, what the???

쥬느비에브:

If trash like this lacks basic sense then there isn’t anything she won’t do… This is just the beginning… after she finishes her suspension there is no doubt that she will return to work as a judge…

프렌즈화이팅:
what a pitiful ministry of justice.. why can’t you handle any investigation?

짜증나:
Just think about this bitch becoming a judge, can you imagine it?! kick this slut out, does she have to kill someone with her own hands to be accused of murder? This bitch is more guilty of killing someone than an actual murderer.

썬데이:
this woman doesn’t have an ounce of morality in her!!

팅커벨:
this person is a worthless piece of garbage, you think you could be a prosecutor, lawyer, or judge?? What would happen to people’s faith in the system? Don’t you have any respect, JRTI, kick this woman out.

카작축구:
So she is continuing to break the law. Don’t dismiss this offense casually, they have to kick her out of the institute before she breaks an even bigger law.

windhover:
if she was capable of this, was she bribing somebody higher up? she’s unbelievable. the courts these days…

솔바람:
In order for people to trust the courts, there must be a firm response to this

유부남자:
what a venerable institution~~

라임오렌지나무:
Unless they kick the woman out, there is no way this incident will be resolved.

Bin:
If she only gets three months suspension, then she will never be able to get rid of her reputation as a homewrecker

인비짱:
So somebody who is going to become a judge or a prosecutor gets greedy and destroys someone else’s family without any remorse, even sends someone to their death. It’s so scary. Prosecutors and judges are highly respected jobs, but then somebody goes ahead and behaves so indecently. Money-grubbing bitch.

내마음의풍차:
tsk tsk, the han of that family has yet to be atoned for… with a brain and body like that, why would she do that??? Why would she wreck someone’s family… there are plenty of good men around, why would it have to end like this

Sources: koreBANG, Money Today, Donga Newspaper

idk, I thought this was a very interesting read. For me, it gave valuable insight into the legal education system in Korea. It also provided some interesting perspectives about the role of law and lawyers in Korea. I don't know, I was really surprised by the school's response to this scandal and how seemingly public this all was, where something like this wouldn't have even made the news where I'm from...also please read netizen comments with a grain of salt...

For folks who are interested in learning more about legal education in Korea, check out this article and this book. I'm so sorry if y'all find this terribly boring, but as a law student and someone interested in education reform, I find this to be incredibly interesting OTL

Comments

Re: The JRTI is called the 사법연수원 in Korean

[uledy.livejournal.com]

Hey! Thanks so much!

Updated the post :3

[twinkystar16.livejournal.com]

this seems to be personal issues between the parties involved
not all legal practitioners are morally upright and righteous.you can't expect that

[odd-fish-stick.livejournal.com]

isn't adultery still illegal in korea? you'd expect lawyer not to commit crimes, no?

[shintotchi.livejournal.com]

I can't find the outrage. The woman unknowingly slept with a married. When he finally told her, she was pretty invested. She didn't speak to the wife until he tried to break up with her. At this point I'm confused. Did she talk to the wife to shame him before they broke up, or did she call the wife to brag and mess with her head? If it was the latter, then definitely she should get the same punishment as the guy. However if it was the former, then it wasn't malicious and 3 months is enough.

At the end of the day this is a personal issue. You see this kind of thing all the time in my country. The thing bringing it to light is that a life was lost, but ultimately that was the wife's decision. It's hard to scream for justice without knowing if the other woman directly had a hand in it.

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

So...netizens are ignoring the fact dude concealed he was married for two years and she revealed he is a scumbag and are just saying she should be punished too? Okay...

[pentrue.livejournal.com]

It's the fact that she was messaging the wife after and rubbing salt in the wound that makes me angry, so I think their cries for punishment are justified. Although, after being lied to she may not have been in the right frame of mind, it doesn't excuse her actions. Such a messy situation.

[mycorrhizoid.livejournal.com]

I too am having a hard time seeing why they want to blame the other woman for everything . . . Mom's story doesn't seem to match with the findings either.

"over eight months" is not equivalent to "from August 2011 onward"

[stoppedclock321.livejournal.com]

No worries OP, this is really interesting to see! I like hearing about other societies and this is a pretty extreme case but it's fascinating...

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Is it possible she got the lesser punishment because there's not enough information to tell that the girlfriend acted out of spite, though? I realize I'm reaching, but maybe she told the wife to warn her that her husband is a cheater.

There's no excuse for the illegal tutoring, though.

[tazanya.livejournal.com]

I surmise that because the law requires she knowingly have engaged in adultery, she wasn't charged.

Also, it claims the couple were living apart at some time during all this and going through some dowry issues (which if they were married shouldn't all the dowry stuff have been worked out?)

So there may also have been exceptions due to the marriage being a civil union rather than an actual wedding/full marriage.


Whatever caused the woman to commit suicide, having heated words and revealing the adultery should not be grounds to claim she caused this suicide, that leap is just farfetched based on the information, so many assumptions and inferences have to be made to come to that conclusion.

She dated this guy for two years, then he tells her he's married, but separated/divorcing his wife, as evidenced by them not living together. Sometime later he wants to break up. The girl is understandably bitter, probably does maliciously call to tell the wife about the adultery (but she may have done it more to hurt the husband than torment the wife.) She forwards messages between the husband, which seem more informative than stalker-y/tormenting.

Seems like the husband then tries to wiggle out of the marriage through annulment -- based on the dowry debate and other marriage "technicalities" that popped up. The stressed/depressed wife opts for suicide.

Of course there may have been more wrongdoing on the mistresses side, but no facts to support that have been revealed and the mom didn't separately sue the mistress, which she has the right to do in Korean law, which leads me to believe there wasn't as much wrongdoing to warrant all this backlash on this girl.

[anathema-switch.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm not sure it should be the schools position to punish them for personal wrongdoings but agree that they should have the same punishment. At first it seemed like she was innocent / he hid the fact that he was married but they say she stayed with him after finding out / revealed it out of bitterness.

Can we please talk about the $930,000 dowry the groom's side asked for? wtf lmao + He apologized and fixed a date for the ceremonial wedding~ ...this bitch.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

I can't believe he actually tried to set a date for the wedding. On what planet is that a good idea?!

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

According to the JRTI, A apologized to C after his affair was revealed and even went so far as to set a date for their wedding.

Dude, seriously...

My first thought was that the girlfriend called the fiancee to warn her that her future husband is a cheater, not to try to humiliate her. If that's the case, the girlfriend really shouldn't be punished at all.

But I don't blame the mother for reacting the way she did. It's normal to be angry in that situation.

[purpleunihorn.livejournal.com]

So this is what the idol scandals were trying to cover.... I knew it!
When a sudden wave of dating scandals comes to shore, it means Korea is trying to hide something big
So this is what it was

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

Those woobin/soyeon/sulli rumors were, i believe, covering up the president's apology or whatever. And something else involving the military.

If you meant, the suzy scandal, then it could be. Only it appeared days later.

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

president's apology? what did I miss?

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

Something about not being able to keep a promise. I remember it was in the headlines as well on that day. But disappeared from real time trending topics when the dating scandals came out. Mission accomplished media!

[purpleunihorn.livejournal.com]

So still, even though it wasnt this, they were still trying to hide something....
You go korean media throwing your idols in the fire

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

They were trying to hide the president apologizing for breaking her campaign promise of a monthly pension to all senior citizens.

[fogcutter.livejournal.com]

why did she target the revenge on the poor wife instead of the guy who tricked her into the relationship? what a mess... the guy is a classic asshole

[obviousgirl.livejournal.com]

While I was reading this and trying to keep the letters and people straight, I couldn't help but honestly wonder if this was real life or fiction.

None of this makes sense and the time lines don't match up. It's all a bit confusing; but this is a personal matter that needs to be worked out between the parties involved and not policed by the law school or public.

adultery law in korea

[lobotronic.livejournal.com]

This is a pretty big deal because in Korea, adultery is a punishable offense. If you are caught cheating, your spouse can have you charged with adultery. The jail time is 2 years. That along with a very traditional Confucian culture which places marriage above many other aspects of life, makes this a notable story. Plus they're supposed to be future judges/lawyers. Pretty crazy stuff.

[fantaesticbaby.livejournal.com]

they're all adults, what business does the law school have expelling people for personal things like this?

[ceecile.livejournal.com]

Adultery is illegal so they broke the law they're supposed to uphold.

[fantaesticbaby.livejournal.com]

yeah, oops @ me for not understanding korean law.

but that's still stupid, adultery being illegal is weird...

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

It is interesting to me that the school's response seems to be less sexist than the netizen's would like: it put the harsher punishment on the married man than the woman which I believe is right because he is the one who knew he was married and engaged in a long term affair. The woman notifying the wife was probably done to punish the husband but it also punished the wife who is an innocent victim. Can you imagine how she must have felt to find out her husband had a 2 year affair! Very tragic story. With this tutoring scandal the woman will probably be expelled anyway. It is totally sexist to call her a slut when she didn't even know the guy was married for most of that time. Woman should have just walked away with her dignity intact rather than going after the wife. Once a cheater always a cheater and that man was not worth all this drama.

[soramai.livejournal.com]

thank you OP it was very interesting.
Uggh, these 2! they were both assholes. Poor woman...

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

I think what netizens are most furious about is the verbal abuse the victim got from the woman having the affair and the mother of the man that ultimately drove the victim to suicide. it might be more western to dismiss this as a personal issue that needs to be settled among the individuals and it would be so in Koreans standards too but the victim's family felt that they weren't getting her the justice, hence bringing it out to light.

the whole adultery being illegal I think is one of those dead laws that are still valid but aren't really claimed nowadays. it's more of the whole a future law practitioner having the morality less than a sociopath that's making the netizens angry. which isn't entirely uncommon, but something that will make the public uncomfortable knowing.

[narimyeon.livejournal.com]

What the fuck is illegal tutoring? And why is it so important and scandalous that a suicide victim did such a thing? I swear people in the year 2013 have no morals

Edit: or did I misunderstand? idk this whole thing is soooo confusing