Hunjangûi karûch'im: (Family and kin) Lottery money and a divorced but coresident couple

A Munhwa Ilbo article in Media Daum: A couple who had divorced but stayed together is now in court over lottery money won by the husband. A man and a woman, both 39 in Korean age, were married in '87, had two children, and ended up getting divorced after 13 years of marriage. They had nevertheless stayed together for the sake of children.

The woman had (for some reason not given in the story) after two years of divorce again made a marriage registration without telling the man. He had learned about this only one year later, and demanded a divorce again. They still remained together "for the sake of children." (Making a marriage registration in secret from the other part must have been possible by using the other's seal [tojang]; one can still not help wondering what the level of civil administration is. Remember a case a few years back when the mothers of a man and a woman had made a marriage registration of these two, deciding that they'd make a good couple. And the registration was good, since the two people had to apply for annullment of the registration.)

Now the man in question, living together with his ex-wife, won 6.5 billion W [4.3 mil €] in the lotto, which made 5.1 billion after taxes. He decided he can't live with his ex-wife at all, and demanded a permanent separation with a 200 million won [130000€] alimony (?, wijaryo). The ex-wife demanded instead that the man pay him half of the lotto money, because it should have been seen as a their common property, to which she has contributed with her full-time housework. She applied for a provisional seizure (?, kaamnyu 가압류) of both his housing property and the lottery money, but only the former was accepted by the court. (Seems that pogi ôryôpta is a common phrase in court decisions; "it's difficult to think that...[these two had been in a proper marital relationship or that the woman had contributed to the lottery prize winning.]" The final decision is coming later.

ADDITION: A Yonhap story of the same case in Hankyoreh tells that the husband had given a tacit approval to the woman's re-registration of the marriage, and that the couple had been formally married when he won the lottery.

A couple of more stories of how lottery breaks marriages and friendships: piece of news in Hankyoreh; "lottery-like gold digging" (a story, perhaps fictional), some more lotto talk.

Should perhaps begin to collect Korean lotto folklore. And do the Korean posals know how to tell the correct numbers for the Finnish lotto? I'd have some use for that.

Here at the Empas search there's a good list of fortune tellers, who also give lottery advice. Below are some examples.