Justice ministry to lower legal adult age to 19

SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will lower the legal adult age from 20 to
19 to modernize the country's decades-old civil law in keeping with rapid social
changes, the Justice Ministry said Friday.
The civil law, established in 1958 to regulate private and commercial matters,
originally set the age of legal adulthood at 20 years old. Contracts are official
only when signed by persons of that age.
The ministry has set up a task force to revise clauses in the law code by 2012
amid growing public demand that the nation's laws more closely reflect
contemporary social trends, including the early physical and psychological
maturity of teenagers.
"The revision to lower the adult age will broaden the social and economic
participation of 19-year-olds and narrow the gap between social realities and the
law," the ministry said in a statement.
The country's election and juvenile protection laws have already set the legal
age of adulthood at 19.
The revised bill will be introduced to the National Assembly around the end of
this year, the ministry added.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)