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The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a pension or severance payment expected in the future should be included in the property to be divided when a married couple files for divorce, ending a 1995 precedent that ruled the oppo- site. Since the law was revised in 1990, it has be- come common for divorcing couples to divide their property. Previously, assets accumulated during marriages were considered to belong to the spouse with economic power, usually hus- bands. But retirement payments were excluded in the division because it was difficult to calculate how big they would be or whether the retiring spouse would encounter difficulties in getting the payment. The suit yesterday was a divorce suit filed by a woman against her husband after 14 years of marriage. In the process of the trial, the hus- band requested a share of the plaintiff’s pension, claiming he had contributed to his wife’s career. The Daejeon High Court, which handled the first appeal, followed the precedent of nearly 20 years ago and rejected the husband’s request, saying that a pension that is not fixed cannot be divided in case of divorce and should simply be considered as one factor when dividing assets in general. The Supreme Court yesterday quashed the decision and referred the case back to the high court. It explained that the issue was not particularly uncertain because most workers receive sever- ance payments when leaving jobs; there is no clear standard of including it as a factor when couples divide assets; and that excluding sev- erance payments in divorces for couples before retirement would be unfair compared to those who divorce after retirement. The court added that pensions being paid at the time of divorce should be divided as well. “Retirement pensions of government employ- ees is like deferred payment for duties per- formed during marriages,” said the court yester- day. “An asset jointly contributed to by husband and wife can’t be excluded just because they don’t know the exact amount.” The plaintiff in the case ruled upon was a teacher, a government employee. Analysts said the Supreme Court took into consideration the increasing value of retire- ment payments in Korea’s aging society. The rate of so-called twilight divorces, or breakups of couples that have been married 20 years or longer, was 28.1 percent last year, up from 22.8 percent in 2009. The rate is expected to rise with Korea’s life expectancy. The life expectancy of Koreans in 2012 stood at 81.2 years. Other analysts say the ruling reflects a recent trend to make divorces more fair for women. According to a dissertation last year on divorces, cases in which women took more than 50 per- cent of the assets accounted for 22.5 percent, up from 5.4 percent in 1998. Prosecutors yesterday indicted Seoul Met- ropolitan Councilman Kim Hyung-sik for ar- ranging the murder of a wealthy 67-year-old businessman and landowner who allegedly paid him kickbacks for political favors and was threatening to expose him. They also brought murder charges against his 44-year-old alleged accomplice, surnamed Pae- ng. In a briefing, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office released the results of its investigation into the alleged murder of the businessman, who was surnamed Song. They charged Kim with making arrangements for his friend Paeng to carry out the killing in the early morning of March 3 in a residential building in Naebalsan-dong, Gangseo District, southwest- ern Seoul. Paeng, who has been friends with Kim for a decade, allegedly owed Kim 70 million won and agreed to carry out the murder if his debt was cancelled. At the time Song was killed, Kim was prepar- ing a re-election bid for the Seoul Metropolitan Council in local elections that were held June 4. On March 3, Paeng allegedly knocked Song out in the building in Gangseo that the real estate magnate owned. Officials said Paeng then killed Song by hitting him on the head with a blunt ob- ject multiple times. Kim allegedly received 520 million won in kickbacks from Song between October 2010 and December 2011. Song wanted Kim to help with the rezoning of Naebalsan-dong from resi- dential to commercial use. The kickbacks included tens of millions of won in free alcohol, prosecutors said. The payments were recorded in Song’s personal financial ledg- er, which had daily records of all expenditures since 1991. The final entry in the ledger was on March 1. When the rezoning was delayed, Song grew impatient and threatened Kim that he would raise the issue to the public. Kim feared that his political career would come to an end and allegedly started planning the murder in 2012, according to prosecutors. Kim denied all the charges and has pleaded in- nocent. After the alleged murder, Paeng fled to China. When Chinese police caught up with him, he appealed for help from Kim. Paeng felt betrayed when the councilman ad- vised him to commit suicide numerous times, according to investigators. PenSionS will be DiviDeD in DivorceS councilman inDicteD in murDer caSe North Korea has complained to the United Nations about a film starring actors Seth Rogen and James Franco, accusing the United States of sponsoring ter- rorism and committing an act of war by allowing the produc- tion of a movie with a plot to kill its leader, Kim Jong-un. “The Interview,” due to be re- leased later this year, is about an American television-show host and his producer, who land an interview with Kim Jong-un and are then recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate the North Korean leader, according to the Internet Movie Database. The letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon from North Korea’s UN Ambassador Ja Song-nam — dated June 27, but made public since then — does not mention the name of the film but talks about a plot that “involves insulting and as- sassinating the supreme lead- ership.” “To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incum- bent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of ter- rorism, as well as an act of war,” Ja said. “The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; other- wise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsor- ing terrorism,” he wrote. Ja attached a June 25 article by the state’s official Korean Central News Agency slamming the film with similar rhetoric. Actor Rogen said on Twitter the same day: “People don’t usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they’ve paid 12 bucks for it.” Pyongyang comPlainS about rogen, Franco Film 29