South Korea abolishes law on adultery

A South Korean court has abolished a 62-year-old law that criminalised extramarital affairs, and the stock price of a prominent condom maker immediately shot up 15%.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling that the law suppressed personal freedoms could affect many of the more than 5,400 people who have been charged with adultery since 2008, when the court earlier upheld the legislation, according to court law.

Any current charges against those people could be thrown out and those who have received guilty verdicts will be eligible for retrials, according to a court official, citing office rules.