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Rep. Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party delivers a lecture on the topic of “Will the Population Crisis Disappear Tomorrow?” at a special lecture held at the Daegu City Office of Education in Suseong-gu, Daegu on Nov. 26. (Newsis) |
Mentioning actor Jung Woo-sung and model Moon Ga-bi having a child while not marrying each other, People Power Party Rep. Na Kyung-won proposed introducing a policy similar to France’s "Pacte Civil de Solidarite" to offer legal protection for children born to unmarried parents.
The PACS, a form of civil union in France, provides legal status to unmarried couples --both same-sex and opposite-sex -- granting some of the rights of marriage.
Citing recent statistics, she wrote on Facebook Sunday that Korean society's attitudes toward marriage and parenthood are shifting, with 43 percent of people in 2023 supporting having children outside of marriage, up from 30 percent in 2014. Additionally, 4.7 percent of all births in 2023 were to unmarried parents.
While advocating for Korea to implement a PACS-style policy, Na stressed her belief that Korea's version should not legalize same-sex partnerships, a key difference from the French model.
Current Korean law under Article 779 of the Civil Act recognizes "family" only as those bound by marriage or blood relations, with limited exceptions for individuals living together. But this definition also has its limitations, as it only recognizes relationships derived from marriage.
