A group of legislators of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) introduced a bill that would permit married couples to decide whether their child takes the mother’s surname at the time of birth registration, instead of at the time of their marriage registration. The amendment to Article 781 of the Civil Act, proposed last week by Rep. Park Ju-min and 14 other DPK lawmakers, would expand the time during which parents may agree to give a child the mother’s surname. Under the current law, children, in principle, should take their father’s surname and family origin. Parents are allowed to use the mother’s surname for their children only if they make that agreement when registering their marriage. This means that couples are asked to make a decision about the surname of a future child — often long before they know whether or when they will have any children. The bill would retain the father-surname principle but allow parents to make the agreement either when registering their marriage or when reporting the child’s birth. “There can be a considerable interval between the re
