My Korean wife filed for divorce in Seoul and I've been given a court date — I live in the US now. Do I have to fly to Korea?

You do not have to be in Seoul for the mediation date, and you do not lose by not flying. What you cannot do is let the date pass without a lawyer on record — an unrepresented, absent respondent is how default outcomes happen. A Korean lawyer appears for you under a power of attorney at mediation and at hearings; your physical presence becomes relevant only if testimony is needed, and even then video appearance is increasingly available. On the money: a Korean court can consider your US accounts in the division, and you can claim the Seoul apartment; whether either happens depends on when the assets were built and on evidence, not on where you sit.

Can she divorce in Korea, and under which law

Yes. A Korean national habitually resident in Korea gives the Seoul Family Court jurisdiction under Article 56 of the Act on Private International Law (국제사법, gukje sabeop), and Korean law applies under Article 66. Her petition is for judicial divorce (재판상 이혼, jaepansang ihon) under Article 840 of the Civil Act; "abandonment" is malicious desertion, and her refusal to relocate as agreed is your answer to it. Since you do not contest the divorce, the case is about fault, property and, if she claims it, consolation money.

Appearing from abroad

A power of attorney (위임장, wiimjang), notarized and apostilled in the US, appoints Korean counsel who files your answer (답변서, dapbyeonseo) and appears at every date. Mediation (조정, jojeong) is where these cases usually resolve; the mediator will want to hear your position on the assets and will treat counsel's presentation as your presence. If mediation fails and the court moves to trial, most of the case is documentary; a party's examination, where ordered, can often be arranged by video for a party abroad, and if in-person attendance is required, it is one date, scheduled with notice.

Ignoring the date is the one wrong answer. After valid service — which yours was — the court may proceed and enter judgment on her allegations. That judgment would be enforceable against the apartment deposit you paid, and recognizable in the US against your assets there.

The money

Property division (재산분할, jaesan bunhal) under Article 839-2 covers assets acquired through the cooperation of both spouses during the marriage, in either name, wherever located. The principle that matters for you is timing: assets built after the marriage effectively ended are generally excluded, and Korean courts commonly value the pool at or near separation where the spouses have lived apart for years. Two years of US savings and retirement contributions since you left, during a separation she caused, is the argument that those assets are yours alone; the seven years before are in the pool. A US retirement account is an asset the court can value; it would ordinarily order a payment reflecting her share rather than attempt to divide the account itself, and any such payment is enforceable in the US only after recognition there.

The Seoul apartment in her name is marital property to the extent it was acquired during the marriage, and your half of the deposit is documented contribution. Claim it by counterclaim in your answer. A provisional attachment (가압류, gaapnyu) on the apartment prevents her from selling it before judgment.

Consolation money (위자료, wijaryo) depends on fault; her desertion claim, met with evidence of her refusal to relocate, is unlikely to support an award against you and may support one against her.

Children, property and support

No children mentioned; the case is entirely financial.

Your situation as a foreign national

Nothing about your status in the US matters to the Korean court, and you have no Korean status to protect. The practical friction is documentary: apostilles, translations of your US account statements, and the power of attorney. Start those now; ten weeks is enough if the US-side paperwork begins this week.

Practical insight

Respondents abroad mishandle these cases in two ways. Some fly to Seoul for the mediation unrepresented, sit through a Korean-language session with a court interpreter, and agree to terms they do not understand. Others ignore it and learn a year later that a Korean judgment has been filed for recognition in their state. The sensible path is the third: counsel on record, the timing argument on the assets made in writing before mediation, the apartment attached, and you at your desk. Keep every message in which she declined to move; the desertion claim collapses on those.

Send us the petition and your dates of separation and departure, and we can tell you what is in the pool and what is not — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, International Family Law Team