'I'm your husband's daughter': Call after 8 years reveals husband's secret past — can the marriage be annulled?

A woman who discovered eight years into her marriage that her husband — who had claimed to be an ethnic Korean from China — was in fact a North Korean defector with a daughter born in the North has sought legal advice on whether she can have the marriage annulled.

The woman, identified only as A, shared her story Monday on YTN Radio's legal advice program "Jo In-seop's Counseling Office." She said she met her husband, who is the same age as her, while they both worked at the same supermarket, and the two eventually married and had a son together.

At the time, her husband had introduced himself as an ethnic Korean from Yanbian, China, saying he had obtained South Korean citizenship and that his parents had died in China.

The marriage had proceeded without any notable problems until A recently received a phone call from an unfamiliar young woman, who claimed to be her husband's daughter and said she had recently defected from North Korea and settled in South Korea.

Confronted by A, the husband ultimately confessed to a past he had kept hidden: he was not an ethnic Korean from China but a North Korean defector who had fled the North in 2012, and he had been married there and fathered a daughter.

The revelations did not stop there.

The husband had secretly canceled a joint savings account the couple had built up to fund their son's education and handed 40 million won ($29,900) to a defection broker to bring his daughter to South Korea.

"Everything I thought I knew about my husband was a lie," A said. "I am furious that he spent such a large sum of money without saying a word to me. I want to void the marriage — I'm wondering if that's possible."

Attorney Lee Hyeon-ho of Shinsegae Law said that a husband's deception about his past alone is not sufficient grounds to nullify a marriage.

"Nullification of marriage is recognized only in very limited circumstances, such as when there was no genuine agreement to marry at the time of registration," Lee said. "Because this couple filed for marriage registration with the mutual intention to marry, the case does not meet the grounds for nullification."

However, Lee said A could seek to have the marriage canceled if the deception was serious enough to have materially influenced her decision to marry. "Bigamy under civil law constitutes grounds for cancellation of marriage, so the first step is to determine whether the husband's marriage in North Korea is recognized as a legal marriage," Lee added.

On the 40 million won the husband had secretly withdrawn from the joint savings account, Lee said the matter could be examined during asset division proceedings. "A can argue that the husband's unilateral disposal of jointly held assets should be taken into account as 'other circumstances' when assessing each party's contribution to the marital estate," Lee said.

Lee added that if the husband had borrowed additional money to cover the broker's fee, A could also request that such debt be treated as his personal liability and excluded from the asset division. "It would be advisable to first confirm the details of the husband's prior marriage and how the money was spent, and then move quickly on legal action," Lee said.