``Scope of prohibited marriage reduced from 8th degree of kinship to 4th degree of kinship''...Ministry of Justice ``Not confirmed, but carefully considered'' = South Korea

South Korea's Ministry of Justice (Ministry corresponds to the Ministry) has announced that it has not decided on a revision to reduce the ban on marriage between relatives from within the 8th degree of kinship to within the 4th degree of kinship.
On the 28th, the Ministry of Justice said, ``We are carefully considering the matter, including conducting research by experts on the legal systems of various countries in order to conduct a basic investigation into the prohibition of marriage between relatives.''
``The direction of the Ministry of Justice's reforms has not yet been decided.'' Yesterday, it was revealed that the Ministry of Justice had commissioned a study to reexamine the scope of the prohibition on marriage between relatives.
Gyunkwang (Sungkyunkwan) and YURImu (Yurim) strongly objected. Yesterday, Sungkyunkwan, the Confucian Association General Headquarters, and the National Confucian League announced, ``Stop acts that destroy families immediately,'' and ``restrict the standards for incestuous marriage.''
He expressed concern that if a sudden change were made, human rights would be destroyed, genealogy would be messed up, and the surname itself would become meaningless." Professor Hyun Seo-hye of Sungkyunkwan University Law School, who was commissioned by the government to conduct research
explained the proposal to narrow the scope of the prohibition on incestuous marriage, saying, ``The number of cases in which people maintain a sense of solidarity as a family with blood relatives of the fifth degree or higher has decreased significantly.''
Considering the fact that the majority of people still consider relatives up to the sixth degree to be close relatives, Professor Hyun expanded the scope of the prohibition of incestuous marriage to eight degrees of kinship.
He proposed that it is necessary to consider ways to gradually reduce the number of relatives from within the same degree to six degrees of kinship, and then to within four degrees of kinship. However, they added the proviso that there is concern that the gradual reduction plan could be controversial as being unconstitutional.
The current Civil Code states that blood relatives within △8 degrees of kinship cannot marry (Article 809, Paragraph 1), and that marriage is invalid (Article 815, Item 2).
However, on October 27, 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 815, Item 2 of the Civil Code, which uniformly invalidates marriages between blood relatives within the eighth degree of kinship, limits the freedom of marriage.
The court ruled that it violates the constitution and that it violates the constitution. As a result, we have ordered that this provision be amended by December 31st this year. An official from the Ministry of Justice stated,
After careful consideration and sufficient social discussion, we plan to compile a revised bill that reflects the changing times and national sentiment."