"We will abolish the criminal-law family exemption applied to destruction of evidence and harboring of criminals, so that perpetrators receive the punishment they deserve."

Han Jung-ae, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker [provided by the lawmaker's office]
Han Jung-ae, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker [provided by the lawmaker's office]

Han Jung-ae, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker representing Seoul's Gangseo-byeong district and the party's policy committee chair, introduced a bill Thursday to remove family-exemption clauses from the Criminal Act provisions covering harboring of criminals and destruction of evidence.

Under current law, Article 151 of the Criminal Act punishes anyone who conceals or helps a person flee after committing a crime subject to a fine or heavier penalty. Article 155 punishes the destruction of evidence in another person's criminal case. However, both articles exempt family members from punishment when they commit such acts on behalf of a relative.

According to media reports, Jang Yun-gi — who is under detention and investigation for the brutal killing of a high school girl he had never met in downtown Gwangju — had key evidence supporting a sexual-crime motive destroyed and discarded by his father, an active-duty police officer. The father's actions came to light belatedly, but he escaped punishment under the Criminal Act's family-exemption provision.

According to Han, the stakes are particularly high because while the minimum sentence for simple murder is five years in prison, rape-motivated murder carries only the death penalty or life imprisonment. The destroyed evidence was central to the entire scope of the charges.

A separate case also illustrates the problem: a man in his 30s, identified only as A, helped his biological father — Jo Gyu-seok, a deputy leader of a criminal organization — evade authorities from July 2019 to February 2020, knowing his father was a suspect facing charges including robbery resulting in death. A was acquitted after courts recognized the family exemption under the Criminal Act's harboring provision.

The legal basis for such exemptions has traditionally been described as a ground for excluding culpability due to the absence of any reasonable expectation of lawful conduct. Nonetheless, legal experts have pointed to the urgent need for reform in light of changing social norms and to strengthen the effectiveness of criminal investigations.

Han's bill removes the family exemptions from both the harboring and evidence-destruction provisions of the Criminal Act. "Korea's family-exemption regime covers a comparatively broad range of relatives compared with other countries, which works in favor of perpetrators," she said. "In practice, Japan does not grant blanket immunity for evidence destruction among family members but instead weighs the gravity of each case individually. By abolishing the Criminal Act's family-exemption regime in line with the changing times, we will ensure thorough investigations into serious crimes and appropriate punishment for those who commit them."


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