Despite never having lived in South Korea (until very recently), I have always known about the importance of respecting one’s elders in Korean culture. Indeed, any child growing up in a household where Korean is spoken is sure to know the importance of filial piety and respect for elders simply from learning the many different words used to address or refer to a Korean relative. For example, your father’s oldest brother is addressed differently due to his age and status than your father’s second oldest brother. This may seem like a trivial example of how this respect for one’s elders manifests itself in Korean culture. However, even for a person who has never lived in Korea, this cultural norm can become so ingrained in a Korean-American’s way of thinking as to affect their relationships and interactions with non-Koreans for the rest of their life.  

Because of the importance placed on this practice of deferring to elders, a news report about a person killing his or her lineal ascendant such as a parent or grandparent can be even more shocking and incomprehensible to a Korean than perhaps to a person who comes from a less Confucianism based society. This is not to say that Americans would be much less horrified by a news report of parricide.  However, in Korea, it is undeniable that filial piety is such a part of the Korean cultural identity that it is evident in almost all aspects of daily life such as how Koreans behave towards others in the home, at school, at work and of course when taking public transportation. 

In the legal realm, despite my familiarity with Korean filial piety, I was surprised to learn of Korean Penal Code Article 250(2), which provides for a higher minimum punishment of seven years imprisonment in the case of one who commits homicide against one’s lineal ascendants. Article 250(1) provides for a minimum 5 year prison sentence for homicide of non-lineal ascendants.  Professor Cho Kuk’s article “Aggravated Punishment on the Homicide of Lineal Ascendants in the Korean Penal Code: Maintain Filial Piety by Criminal Law?” (Journal of Korean Law, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003) goes into much more depth about whether this distinction in punishment should be maintained in Korean law. Indeed, there is currently much debate about the removal of this provision. Some of the interesting points that Professor Cho makes is that “none of the current Chinese, Japanese or North Korean Penal Codes has such a provision” despite their shared Confucian tradition, and the infliction of heavier punishment for crimes committed against lineal ascendants also applies to assault, inflicting bodily injury, abandonment, false arrest/imprisonment and intimidation. 

Professor Cho’s main legal argument is that these provisions violate the Korean Constitution’s principle of equal protection, but he also points out that Article 250(2) punishes equally those “who have been the victims of their parents’ domestic abuse.” Indeed, the statistics cited in his article indicate that 41.7 percent of the murderers of lineal ascendants and/or their family members suffered from physical, emotional or sexual abuse committed by the murder victim (lineal ascendant). In addition, 35.4 percent suffered from mental illness at some point before or during the crime. While these numbers provide no justification for parricide, it is interesting to note that often the public’s and politicians’ perception of parricide is in strong conflict with the idea that murders of lineal ascendants are simply incomprehensibly evil when only 7.1 percent committed parricide for the purpose of “gain.”

Despite this, given Korea’s extremely strong cultural traditions and perceptions, it will no doubt be remarkable if and when the government actually succeeds in abolishing the heavier punishment for parricide.

Grace Kim( Professor, College of Law )

gkimhufs@gmail.com