Paternity

Paternity (친자관계/親子關係) is the legal relationship between a father and his child.

Paternity is the essential factor in determining the eligibility for a family member, inheritance and support. In general, birth (출생/出生) and, sometimes, affiliation (인지/認知) or adoption (입양/入養) gives rise to the paternity, as explained below.

A child born to the wife during a marriage is determined to be the husband's child by a "presumption of paternity". This presumption, can sometimes be rebutted by evidence to the contrary, generally prior to a formal court ruling involving divorce, annulment or legal separation.

In the case of unwed fathers, a man may come forward and accept the paternity of the child in what is called a "voluntary acknowledgment of paternity", the mother or government can file a petition for a determination of paternity against a putative father, or paternity can be determined by the courts through estoppel over time.

Statutory ground
In Korea, the Civil Act regulates three types to cause the paternity.

By Birth
Article 844 (Presumption as Husband s Child)
 * (1) A child conceived by a wife during the marriage shall be presumed to be the child of the wife s husband.
 * (2) A child born after two hundred days from the day when the marriage was formed or born within three hundred days from the day when the matrimonial relation was terminated, shall be presumed to have been conceived during the marriage.

Article 845 (Determination of Paternity by Court)
 * If a woman who has remarried gives birth to a child, and it is impossible to determine the father of the child in accordance with the provisions of Article 844, the court shall, upon the application of the party concerned, determine the paternity of the child.

Article 846 (Denial of Paternity of Child)
 * Either of husband and wife may, in any case mentioned in Article 844, bring an action to deny that he is the natural father of the child.

Article 847 (Action of Denial of Paternity)
 * (1) The action of denial of paternity shall be brought by the husband or wife against the other spouse or the child within two years from the day when he or she becomes aware of the cause of the action.
 * (2) In the case of paragraph (1), if both of the other spouse and the child against whom the action is to be brought has died, the action of denial of paternity may be brought against a public prosecutor within two years from the day on which he or she becomes aware of the death.

By Affiliation
Article 855 (Affiliation)
 * (1) A child born out of wedlock may be affiliated by its natural father or mother. When the marriage of the parent becomes null and void, the child born between them shall be deemed to be a child born out of wedlock.
 * (2) A child born out of wedlock, when its father and mother marry, shall be deemed to be a child born during the marriage from the time of the marriage.

Article 857 (Affiliation of Deceased Child)
 * Even after a child has died, if its lineal descendant survives, it may be affiliated as the lawful child.

Article 858 (Affiliation of Unborn Child)
 * A father may affiliate an unborn child.

Article 859 (Effectiveness of Affiliation)
 * (1) Affiliation shall become effective when it is reported in accordance with the provisions of the Act on the Registration, etc. of Family Relationship.
 * (2) Affiliation may be effected by a will. In this case, the executor of a will shall make such report.

Article 860 (Retrospective Effect of Affiliation)
 * Affiliation shall be retrospectively effective from the time of birth of the child: Provided, That the right acquired by a third person shall not be prejudiced thereby.

Article 861 (Revocation of Affiliation)
 * If affiliation has been made by fraud, duress or grave mistake, its revocation may be claimed to the Family Court within six months from the day when such fraud or mistake becomes known, or such duress disappears.

Article 862 (Action of Demurrer against Affiliation)
 * A child or any other person interested may bring an action of demurrer against an affiliation within one year from the day when it becomes aware of a report of such affiliation.

Article 863 (Action Demanding Affiliation)
 * A child, any of its lineal descendants or the agent by law of any of them, may bring an action against its father or mother demanding affiliation by its father or mother.

Article 864 (Death of Father or Mother and Action Demanding Affiliation)
 * In the cases mentioned in Articles 862 and 863, if the father or mother of a child has died, an action of demurrer or action demanding affiliation may be brought against the public prosecutor within two years from the day when the death of the father or mother becomes known.

Article 864-2 (Affiliation and Responsibility of Fostering Child, etc.)
 * The provisions of Articles 837 and 837-2 shall apply mutatis mutandis with respect to the responsibility of fostering a child and the visitation right in the case of the affiliation of the child.

By Adoption
Article 866 (Capacity for Adoption)
 * Any person who has attained majority may adopt another as his child.

Article 882-2 (Effect of Adoption)
 * (1) An adopted child shall have the position of a child by birth of step-parents as from being adopted.
 * (2) The previous family relationship prior to the adoption shall continue to exist.

Paternity test
Parental testing is the use of genetic fingerprinting to determine whether two individuals have a biological parent–child relationship. A paternity test establishes genetic proof whether a man is the biological father of an individual, and a maternity test establishes whether a woman is the biological mother of an individual.

Though genetic testing is the most reliable standard, older methods also exist, including ABO blood group typing, analysis of various other proteins and enzymes, or using human leukocyte antigen antigens. The current techniques for paternal testing are using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Paternity testing can now also be performed while the woman is still pregnant from a blood draw.

DNA testing is currently the most advanced and accurate technology to determine parentage. In a DNA parentage test, the result (called the 'probability of parentage) is 0% when the alleged parent is not biologically related to the child and the probability of parentage is typically 99.99% when the alleged parent is biologically related to the child. However, while almost all individuals have a single and distinct set of genes, rare individuals, known as "chimeras", have at least two different sets of genes. There have been several cases of DNA profiling that falsely "proved" that a mother was unrelated to her children.

Celebrity cases
Recently celebrities have made news in relation to the paternity suit.

Take an example of famous novelist and twitterian Lee whose followers outnumber two million. In February 2013, he was a defendant of the paternity lawsuit filed by one of his female followers 26 years ago. At that time, he was a vagabond writer. The plaintiff demanded a handsome amount of money as unpaid child rearing expenses.

The lawsuit was finally settled by the court mediation of Chuncheon Distric court. It was reported that Mr. Lee has promised to give unidentified money to his biological mother.

Surprisingly on July 31, 2013, Ms. Cha, former spokeswoman of the opposition Democratic Party, filed a lawsuit against a businessman Hee-Jun Cho, elder son of world-famous Pastor Paul Cho arguing Chairman H.J. Cho would not acknowledge her son who was born at Hawaii under Cho's extravagant sponsorship.