South Korea's minority party, New Politics Alliance for Democracy(NPAD), is pursuing a legislative throwback of sorts that can best be described as "Ungrateful Offspring Prevention Law." With the new proposal favoring the parents, the party hopes to boost the backing from the elderly, which it's been sorely lacking.
On Aug. 24, members of NPAD-funded Democratic Policy Institute and Korean Elderly Forum met to discuss the following policy recommendations.
Contained in the legalese is a phrase, "If the inheritor with an obligation to support the giver does not execute his/her duty, the giver has the right to reclaim the gift," an obvious remedy for dereliction of duty by ungrateful children, but within the same statute, there is also: "For the part that the gift has already been transferred, the above does not apply," which seems to clearly contradict the prior phrase. NPAD minister, Byung-Doo Min, claiming that "lawsuits where the unhappy parent sues his/her children are common but because of this [law], they mostly lose," is set to propose an amendment to make the recovery of gifts or inheritance possible. (Aug. 24, Hankyoreh News)
If such a law is passed, it will become possible for givers, usually the parents of grown children, to demand gifts/inheritance back from their own sons and daughters.
According to Newsis's Aug. 24 report, Jong-Geol Lee, the minority floor leader, said "the law's focus is on promoting harmony between the generations rather than on the punishment of ungrateful offspring."