Beginning in 2026, parents who did not support their minor children will be barred from inheriting under the so-called "Gu Hara law."
On the 30th, the Supreme Court announced major judicial system changes taking effect in the first half of next year. That announcement included the so-called "Gu Hara law."
Accordingly, from Jan. 1, 2026, a decedent's direct ascendant may be deprived of inheritance rights if the ascendant grievously violated the duty to support when the decedent was a minor, or if the ascendant committed a serious crime against the decedent or the decedent's spouse or direct descendants, or treated them with conspicuously unfair conduct.
For actual loss of inheritance rights to occur, it must be requested by the decedent's will or by co-heirs and accepted by the family court.
The so-called "Gu Hara law" began with a legislative push from Gu Ho-in, the late Gu Hara's biological older brother. Gu Hara died on Nov. 24, 2019, at the age of 28, and after her death her biological mother suddenly appeared and engaged in an inheritance dispute.
However, Gu Hara's biological mother had left home and lost contact when the deceased was only 9 years old and then appeared at the funeral with a lawyer after 20 years. Nonetheless, she reportedly demanded half of the proceeds from the sale of the deceased's real estate, which provoked public outrage.
In response, Gu Ho-in filed an inheritance property division petition against the biological mother who failed to fulfill her parental duties, and the Gwangju Family Court recognized the contributing share of the father who raised her and ruled on an inheritance split of 60:40. Subsequently, from March 2020, the legislative petition for the "Gu Hara law" was promoted and a bill was even introduced in the National Assembly.
Although the bill was discarded at the end of the 20th and 21st National Assembly terms amid partisan conflict, it passed the plenary session in the 22nd National Assembly last year about three months before the fifth anniversary of the deceased's death, and it will be enforced beginning in 2026.
[Photo] OSEN DB, joint press photo group
[OSEN]