Is there alimony in Korea after divorce?

What Korean law says

Article 826(1): spouses must live together, support each other and cooperate. That is the duty of spousal support, and it is a duty of the marriage. Divorce ends the marital relationship, and a former spouse is not among the relatives who owe a duty of support under Article 974, which lists lineal blood relatives and their spouses, and other relatives living in the same household. This is the structural reason there is no standing maintenance award after a Korean divorce.

Article 843 of the Civil Act applies to divorce by judgment the rules on damages in Article 806, the rules on the responsibility for raising children in Article 837, the rules on visitation in Article 837-2, and the rules on the claim for division of property in Article 839-2.

Article 806(1) gives a party the right to claim compensation for loss from the other party who is at fault. Read with Article 751(1), which makes a person who causes mental suffering liable for loss other than property, this is the basis for consolation money. It turns on fault and it is awarded as a sum, not as a recurring obligation.

Article 839-2(1) and (2): either party may claim division of property, and where there is no agreement the family court fixes the amount and method, taking into account the property built up through the cooperation of both parties and other circumstances. Article 839-2(3): that claim extinguishes two years after the divorce.

Article 837(2) requires an agreement to cover who raises the child and how the cost of raising the child is borne. That cost is child support.

Civil Act, Articles 751, 806, 826, 837, 839-2, 843 and 974. Act No. 21454, in force from 17 March 2026. Article 751 and Article 806 are quoted as applied to divorce through Article 843.

What Korean courts have actually done

Consolation money is not automatic, and it can be nothing at all. In an Uijeongbu District Court judgment of 11 September 2025 (2024DeuDan7582 and 2024DeuDan10182), the couple had married in 1995, divorced by conciliation in 2001, remarried in 2003, and separated in practice from November 2013. Each side blamed the other: one alleged malicious desertion and an affair, the other alleged misuse of business income and being locked out of the home.

The court granted the divorce under the catch-all ground, and awarded consolation money of nothing, because responsibility for the breakdown was found to be equal on both sides and the affair allegation was not proved. It did order division of property of 37,100,000 KRW.

That case shows the structure cleanly. Division of property is a separate item from consolation money and survived even though consolation money did not, because division does not depend on fault.

What usually happens in practice

The practical consequence for a foreign spouse is that the financial outcome is settled at the divorce rather than spread over the years after it. There is no later application to vary a maintenance figure because circumstances changed, as there would be in systems that award it. That makes getting the division right the first time far more important than it is elsewhere. Article 839-2(2) directs the court to the property built up through the parties cooperation and to other circumstances, which is a wide range of considerations rather than a fixed formula, so the material a party puts before the court at the division stage is the material that counts. There is no second stage.

It also makes the two-year limit in Article 839-2(3) the most dangerous date in a Korean divorce. It runs from the divorce, not from discovering an asset, and once it passes the claim is gone.

Child support is the one continuing payment, and it is not yours. It is owed for the child, calculated against the child’s needs and both parents’ circumstances, and it can be revisited as those change.

What you should do next

• Plan for a settlement at the divorce, not for a monthly income after it.
• Treat property division as the main financial event, and identify assets before you agree anything.
• Diarise the two-year limit from the day the divorce takes effect.
• Keep the three claims separate in negotiation. They are not interchangeable and cannot be traded off as though they were: consolation money turns on fault, division does not, and child support is the child’s.

Written and reviewed by Soobin You, Attorney at YUSU Lawfirm. Former prosecutor. Last legal review: 12 September 2026.