{
  "id": 5918529,
  "title": "Mother's surname at birth? Bill aims to shift Korea's family-name deadline",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/06/mothers-surname-at-birth-bill-aims-to-shift-koreas-family-name-5918529",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-06T05:57:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times-koreatimes",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/society/20260906/mothers-surname-at-birth-bill-aims-to-shift-koreas-family-name-deadline"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) legislative group has introduced a bill aiming to modify Korea's family-name registration rules, reportedly allowing married couples to decide if their child should carry the mother's surname at birth. The proposed amendment, submitted by Rep. Park Ju-min alongside 14 fellow DPK lawmakers, seeks to expand the time frame for parents to agree on the child's surname. Currently, children are expected to adopt their father's surname, with parents able to use the mother's surname only if they make the agreement at the time of marriage registration. This proposal seeks to address the issue of couples making decisions about a future child's surname well before they even know if or when they will have a child. The bill maintains the father-surname principle but enables parents to make the agreement either when registering their marriage or when registering the child's birth.",
  "summary": "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…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "Mother's surname at birth? Bill aims to shift Korea's family-name deadline",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/06/mothers-surname-at-birth-bill-aims-to-shift-koreas-family-name",
        "published": "2026-09-06T05:47:02.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}