Kim's Current Wife: "Debt Exceeds Income, Unable to Provide Child Support"
Former short track speed skater Kim Dong-sung was revealed to have been criminally charged after being publicly listed on the 'Badfathers' website for failing to pay child support for his two children following his divorce from his ex-wife. Kim's side claimed that he is unable to pay child support due to financial difficulties.
On the 11th, Women’s News reported that Kim’s ex-wife, Ms. A, filed a complaint on November 29 last year at the Yongin Dongbu Police Station, requesting an investigation into Kim’s alleged violation of the Act on the Guarantee of Child Support Enforcement (Child Support Enforcement Act).
Ms. A told the media, "While raising the children, I did not receive most of the child support, and Kim did not engage in visitation rights either, to the extent that the children learned about their father's current situation through YouTube, showing he did not fulfill his parenting responsibilities," explaining the reason for filing the complaint. She also claimed that she had not received approximately 80 million KRW in child support from their divorce in 2018 until October last year.
According to a prior court mediation, Kim was required to pay 1.5 million KRW per month in child support, 1.5 million KRW total for both children (1.5 million KRW per child), until the children reached adulthood. However, citing financial difficulties, Kim failed to pay 15 million KRW in child support, leading to his name being listed on the ‘Badfathers’ website in April 2020, which publicly discloses the identities of child support defaulters.
The following year, the court accepted Kim’s request to reduce the child support payments, ordering him to pay 800,000 KRW per child per month, totaling 1.6 million KRW monthly, starting from November of that year. Nevertheless, Kim continued to withhold payments, resulting in his name being listed on the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s online site in 2022 as a ‘child support debt defaulter.’
Kim’s side stated that he would pay the child support once his financial situation improves. Ms. B, who legally married Kim in May 2021, told Women’s News, "Kim is struggling with the criminal complaint, so I am conveying his position on his behalf," adding, "Currently, his debts exceed his income, so he is unable to pay child support."
She continued, "He has only just started to get his life together and has been working for less than a year; how could he pay child support now? The father has to survive for the children to be raised. Everything will be resolved once he is alive," she argued.
Former short track national team athlete Kim Dong-sung is leaving the courtroom after testifying as a witness at the trial of 'shadow insider' Choi Soon-sil, Jang Si-ho, and former Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jong at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul in 2017. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Regarding the reason for not meeting the children, she said, "There have been many misunderstandings about Kim through the media, and I do not want the children to see him working at construction sites. It would be better to meet after the misunderstandings are cleared."
Earlier, Kim revealed his current situation on his YouTube channel ‘Bingshin Kim Dong-sung,’ which he launched in October last year, showing himself working as a day laborer at construction sites and doing delivery work even on Christmas. He said, "I once was a gold medalist, and I started YouTube to show that I am living like this," adding that all the revenue generated from YouTube will be donated.
Having learned how to install sinks, he expressed his determination in a recent video: "I first put on skates when I was 8 years old and became an Olympic gold medalist in just 10 years. I started sink installation work at 44, so I won’t be the best at 54, but I can become a skilled and veteran worker if I work hard with all my might."
Kim won the gold medal in the men's 1000m short track at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan and swept the World Championships and Asian Games. At the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, he lost the gold medal in the 1500m event due to the Hollywood action by U.S. team representative Apolo Anton Ohno and biased judging.
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