South Korea to toughen criminal penalties for parents who dodge child support

South Korea is moving to strengthen criminal penalties against parents who deliberately refuse to pay court-ordered child support.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family held the 52nd Child Support Compliance Review Committee on Monday at Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, approving a package of regulatory reforms to improve compliance and imposing 322 sanctions on 264 delinquent payers, the ministry said.

The reform package reflects the committee's finding that existing penalties for nonpayment are too lenient compared with similar child-related offenses such as child neglect, and that the low statutory maximum has allowed many offenders to avoid meaningful punishment through suspended or deferred sentences.

In response, the committee voted to raise the criminal penalty for nonpayment from the current maximum of one year in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won ($7,230) to up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won. It also voted to shorten the grace period following a civil detention order from one year to six months.

The committee also moved to expand access to debtors' immigration records. Under current rules, immigration data can be requested without consent only for debtors who have received government advance payments. The ministry plans to seek a legal amendment allowing immigration records to be requested at the legal-support stage even before any advance payment has been made, as long as child support has gone unpaid.

The ministry also plans to deepen cooperation with the National Tax Service to improve recovery of advance payments. Collection duties will be delegated to the National Tax Service so it can contact debtors directly and urge payment, and the two agencies plan to link their computer systems for faster and more accurate sharing of delinquency data.

The government advance payment program, introduced in July last year, has the government pay child support upfront when a non-custodial parent fails to do so, then seek reimbursement from the debtor. Through May, a total of 16.73 billion won had been paid out to 10,917 minor children across 6,923 households.

However, the recovery rate on those advance payments stands at just 10.8 percent.

The committee decided Sunday on 322 sanctions against 264 delinquent payers — comprising 117 travel bans, 142 driver's license suspensions and 63 public name disclosures.

"We will continue to strengthen the effectiveness of systems related to child support payments," Minister Won Min-kyung said. "Child support is a fundamental obligation that parents must fulfill so their minor children can live stably and grow up healthy."