When a marriage in Korea breaks down and spouses cannot agree to a consensual divorce (협의이혼), the only option is a judicial divorce (재판상 이혼). To succeed, you must prove at least one of the six legal grounds for divorce in Korea under Civil Act Article 840. Among these, extreme maltreatment divorce in Korea under Article 840(3) and (4) is both very serious and often misunderstood, especially in divorce in Korea for foreigners.
This article explains what “extreme maltreatment” means in Korean law, how courts distinguish it from “ordinary” marital conflict, and the types of conduct that have and have not been recognized as grounds for divorce.
Civil Act Article 840(3), (4): Extreme Maltreatment
Article 840 of the Korean Civil Act lists six causes for judicial divorce. Subparagraphs (3) and (4) provide:
- “If one spouse has been extremely maltreated by the other spouse or his/her lineal ascendants”;
- “If one spouse’s lineal ascendant has been extremely maltreated by the other spouse”.
In plain terms, these provisions cover two situations:
- You are extremely mistreated by your spouse or your spouse’s lineal ascendants (e.g., parents-in-law, sometimes grandparents-in-law).
- Your own parents (or grandparents) are extremely mistreated by your spouse.
How Korean Courts Judge “Extreme Maltreatment” in Divorce Cases
The key question for the court is whether the treatment is so serious that it would be cruel to expect the injured spouse to continue the marriage.
To answer this, the court looks at all the circumstances, including:
- The spouses’ age, personality, education, and occupation
- The motive, method, frequency, and duration of the conduct
- The results of the conduct (physical injury, trauma to children, loss of job, etc.)
- The length of the marriage and whether there are children
- The overall history of the marital relationship, not just one incident
The standard is partly objective (social norms) and partly subjective (how a reasonable person in that spouse’s position would feel), so the same conduct might be treated differently depending on context. Importantly, the court does not just examine each incident in isolation. Even if individual acts might look “minor” on paper, a pattern of repeated, escalating abuse can amount to extreme maltreatment when viewed as a whole.
Common Types of Extreme Maltreatment Recognized by Korean Courts
Physical Violence and Verbal Abuse in Marriage
Korean courts have repeatedly stated that violence within marriage cannot be justified. However, to reach the level of extreme maltreatment, the violence (and related abuse) must be serious enough that continuing the marital relationship would be intolerable.
Examples where extreme maltreatment was recognized:
- Severe & Unprovoked Violence: A husband physically injured his wife (two weeks of treatment required) after she criticized him for lying about his education, job, and income, leading to an immediate separation in a marriage that lasted only one month. This constituted extreme maltreatment by the husband (Supreme Court of Korea, 87Meu24).
- Extreme violence and abuse in front of minor children: In another case, a father repeatedly used extremely vulgar insults and committed drunken violence at home in front of young children. A professional opinion even stated that the children needed to be separated from him. The Supreme Court held that such conduct was never justifiable in a marital relationship and amounted to “extreme maltreatment” of the wife (Supreme Court of Korea, 2012Meu1205).
Examples where extreme maltreatment was not recognized:
- Minor assault during a heated argument: In an earlier case, a couple argued over property title and drinking problems. The husband used some insulting language and engaged in a limited physical scuffle. The Court viewed this as an unfortunate but relatively minor quarrel and held it did not reach the level where continuing the marriage was intolerable (Supreme Court of Korea, 80Meu9).
- Relatively minor violence where the other spouse bears major fault: In another case, the wife had long neglected the family, socialized with other men, stayed out all night running a café, and ignored a seriously ill child. The husband struck her during disputes about these issues. The Court found that, given the wife’s serious misconduct and the relatively minor nature of the husband’s violence, the physical contact did not amount to “extreme maltreatment” for divorce purposes (Supreme Court of Korea, 86Meu68).
False Criminal Complaints and Legal Harassment
Extreme maltreatment is not limited to physical acts. False criminal complaints or legal steps taken with the intent to destroy the other spouse’s honor or restrict their freedom can also amount to extreme maltreatment.
Recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- A husband, knowing his wife and a third party were innocent, nevertheless filed a false adultery complaint and even asked others to give false statements. The Supreme Court held that such conduct seriously destroyed affection and trust and constituted “extreme maltreatment” under Article 840(3)(Supreme Court of Korea, 88Meu504 and 88Meu511). (This case was decided when adultery was a crime in Korea.)
Not recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- A spouse filed a criminal complaint and later submitted petitions asking for strict punishment after the marriage had already effectively collapsed due to other issues (e.g., the other spouse’s criminal conduct such as unlicensed driving). The Supreme Court held that, given the timing and context, these actions did not amount to extreme maltreatment under Article 840(3) (Supreme Court of Korea, Decision 2003Meu1890).
Interference with Work and Social Reputation
Courts also treat serious interference with the spouse’s professional life and social reputation as a possible form of extreme maltreatment, especially where it makes it practically impossible for the spouse to carry out their job.
Recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- In one case, a wife groundlessly suspected her husband, a medical school professor, of having an improper relationship with a female student. She complained to the student’s family, sent letters to the dean disguised as a parent criticizing him, severely damaged his reputation within the university, and even came to campus with police and others to try to force him into a psychiatric examination. The Supreme Court held that this conduct seriously harmed his honor and made it impossible for him to fulfill his duties as a professor, amounting to extreme maltreatment (Supreme Court of Korea, 85Meu72).
- In another case, a wife, angered and jealous when confronted about her affairs and social life, portrayed her husband, an elementary school teacher, as mentally ill. She tried to have him committed, asked the school principal for cooperation, and even came to the school with police, handcuffing him in front of his students and attempting to take him away. The Court held that this conduct seriously undermined his dignity and ability to act as a teacher and constituted extreme maltreatment (Supreme Court of Korea, 85Meu51).
Not recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- When a spouse goes to the other’s workplace, makes a scene, or calls repeatedly because the other spouse is openly involved with another partner and avoids communication, courts often view the root cause as the unfaithful spouse’s misconduct. In such cases, the “workplace disturbance” alone may not be treated as extreme maltreatment by the complaining spouse (Supreme Court of Korea, 94Meu1669 and 89Meu785).
Economic Abuse and Forced Deprivation
Extreme maltreatment can also take the form of economic abuse, forcing the spouse to live in unreasonably deprived conditions or subjecting them to degrading domestic labor, especially when the family’s financial situation does not justify it.
Recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- In one case, a husband, despite having sufficient income, forced his wife to cook with discarded vegetable leaves from the market and to handle all heavy housework and laundry alone, without help from in-laws. The Court viewed this combination of extreme deprivation and one-sided domestic labor as physical and emotional abuse amounting to extreme maltreatment (Supreme Court of Korea, 75Meu20).
Not recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- In another case, an elderly husband gave his wife relatively little living money and behaved in an authoritarian and suspicious manner. However, he also lived extremely frugally himself, his strange behavior (such as wandering naked at home and groundless suspicions) was linked to age-related mental decline, and both spouses were in their mid-70s to 80s. Taking these factors together, the Court held that, although the wife’s life was difficult, his conduct did not amount to deliberate “extreme maltreatment” under Article 840(3) (Supreme Court of Korea, 99Meu180).
Suicide Threats and Coercive Self-Harm
Another category involves using the threat of self-harm as a weapon to control the other spouse.
Recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- A husband from early in the marriage criticized his wife over her inability to conceive, pressured her for divorce, and repeatedly threatened suicide if she refused. He twice staged suicide attempts by drinking pesticide. Eventually the wife, unable to endure the emotional abuse and threats, left the marital home and returned to her parents. The Supreme Court held this was a classic example of “extreme maltreatment” by the husband (Supreme Court of Korea, 90Meu484 and 90Meu491).
Not recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- In a different case, a spouse, overwhelmed and frustrated by being saddled with debt, attempted suicide twice. The Court held that the attempted suicides themselves, arising from that spouse’s own despair, did not constitute “extreme maltreatment” of the other spouse (Supreme Court of Korea, 86Meu18 and 86Meu19).
Maltreatment of Parents and In-Laws (Article 840(4))
Under Article 840(4), you may also seek a judicial divorce if your spouse severely mistreats your parents (or grandparents). The law recognizes that extreme abuse directed at your closest family members can destroy the marriage.
Recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- A husband slapped and kicked his mother-in-law. The court treated this as sufficiently serious mistreatment of the wife’s lineal ascendant to qualify as a divorce ground (Supreme Court of Korea, 4280Minsang37).
- A husband filed a criminal complaint for assault against his wife’s mother, even though he had actually assaulted both his wife and her mother and there was no basis for his claim. The Court viewed this as a serious insult and abuse of the wife’s lineal ascendant, constituting a ground for divorce (Supreme Court of Korea, 4290Minsang828).
Not recognized as extreme maltreatment:
- In one case, a mother-in-law grabbed the wife by the hair and insulted her. The wife reacted by biting the mother-in-law’s hand and pushing her away, causing injury. The Court viewed this as an impulsive act of self-defense in the heat of the moment, not as “extreme maltreatment” of a lineal ascendant (Supreme Court of Korea, 62Da445).
- In a corporate management dispute over control of a company, a wife filed criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against her father-in-law after he had already tried to remove her as representative director and had sued her himself. Given this business context and the fact that both sides were litigating, the Court held that her actions did not amount to “extreme maltreatment” of a lineal ascendant (Busan District Court, 2008Reu332, appeal dismissed).
How Extreme Maltreatment Interacts with Other Divorce Grounds
In practice, facts that support an “extreme maltreatment” claim often overlap with other grounds under Article 840, especially:
- Infidelity (Article 840(1)) – for example, repeated violence and humiliation linked to an affair.
- Malicious desertion (Article 840(2)) – for example, abandonment combined with abuse and non-support.
- Other serious cause (Article 840(6)) – where the overall pattern of behavior makes continuation of the marriage impossible, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into one ground.
It is common and usually advisable to plead all applicable grounds in a divorce complaint. The court only needs to find that one ground has been proven to grant the divorce.
Time Limits: Do They Apply to Extreme Maltreatment Cases?
The Civil Act expressly sets strict time limits for two divorce grounds: “infidelity”; and “other serious cause”. For these grounds, you must generally file your divorce lawsuit within six months from the day you became aware of the cause, and within two years from the day the cause occurred.
By contrast, there is no specific six-month/two-year rule in the statute for extreme maltreatment. That does not mean you can safely wait indefinitely. In practice, delay can still seriously weaken your case because:
- Evidence (medical records, messages, witness memories) can be lost or weakened.
- The court will look at the current state of the marriage; if spouses have effectively reconciled or lived together without major problems for a long time after the abuse, it may be harder to prove that continuing the marriage is now intolerable.
If you believe you have suffered extreme maltreatment, it is crucial to seek legal advice promptly and discuss strategy, including how your situation might also fit under other grounds such as “other serious causes.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Does one serious incident of violence automatically qualify as “extreme maltreatment”?
Not automatically. A single incident can be enough if it is very serious (e.g., grave injury, assault in front of children, or especially humiliating conduct), but the court will consider the entire marital history. In many cases, courts look for a pattern or for consequences that clearly show the marriage has become intolerable.
Q2. My spouse often yells and insults me, but never hits me. Can that be extreme maltreatment?
Yes, in principle. The law covers not only physical violence but also grave insults or serious verbal abuse that make it inhumane to continue the marriage. However, ordinary arguments and occasional harsh words usually are not enough. Courts look for frequent, severe abuse that clearly destroys the possibility of a normal marital relationship.
Q3. Can I rely on both “extreme maltreatment” and “other serious causes” at the same time?
Yes. The same facts can support several grounds (e.g., extreme maltreatment plus “other serious causes” under Article 840). In practice, lawyers often plead multiple grounds in the same lawsuit so the court can consider them together.
Q4. I am a foreigner in Korea. Does the court look at cultural differences when judging “extreme maltreatment”?
Korean courts apply Korean law and Korean social norms, but they also consider the actual circumstances of the individuals involved, including their background and the reality of the relationship. For foreigners, it is particularly important to explain clearly how the conduct affected you and to present evidence in a way the court can understand, often with the help of an English-speaking lawyer in Korea.
Navigating Judicial Divorce
Claims based on extreme maltreatment in Korea are highly fact-specific. The outcome depends on:
- How clearly the facts show that continuing the marriage would be intolerable
- The quality and lawfulness of your evidence (medical records, police reports, recordings, messages, workplace documents, witness statements, etc.)
- How your situation fits within multiple possible grounds for divorce
For foreigners, this process is even more challenging due to language barriers and unfamiliar court procedures. Working with a skilled English speaking family law attorney in Korea is important to assess whether your situation meets the legal standard for extreme maltreatment, choose which grounds to rely on, and plan how to collect and present evidence. For a confidential case assessment and tailored advice, you can schedule a consultation with an experienced legal team.
From Our “Grounds for Divorce in Korea” Series
6 Legal Grounds for Divorce in Korea: An Overview
Grounds for Divorce in Korea: Infidelity
Grounds for Divorce in Korea: Malicious Desertion
Grounds for Divorce in Korea: Extreme Maltreatment
Grounds for Divorce in Korea: Spouse Missing for 3+ Years
Grounds for Divorce in Korea: “Other Serious Causes” Explained
Can the At-Fault Spouse Divorce in Korea?