The number of foreign wives mulling divorce due to conflicts with their Korean spouses surged over 40 percent this year, highlighting the rising social problems of international marriages, an activist group said Friday.
The Seoul-based Emergency Support Center for Migrant Women said the number of its counseling sessions with troubled foreign wives rose 16.5
percent from a year ago to 23,492 in the first half, with 3,395, or 14.5 percent, related to divorce.
The group's report came after a 20-year-old Vietnamese woman was stabbed to death last week by her South Korean husband, who has a history of mental illness, just eight days after arriving in the southern port city of Busan to live with him. The case highlights the difficulties and risks of
international marriages brokered by matchmaking agencies.
More than 117,000 women, around half of whom were Chinese, including those of Korean descent, were living here with their Korean spouses as of
the end of March, according to the Korea Immigration Service. Another 30,937, or 26 percent, are from Vietnam.
The center's separate study of 1,060 divorces between April and June last year showed that conflicts between couples and domestic violence were the main reasons, accounting for 42 and 24 percent, respectively. Other reasons included conflicts with the mother-in-law, disappointment with reality and economic difficulties.
Much of the trouble, however, can be attributed to the illegal operation of international matchmaking companies in South Korea, according to an official at the center.
"These companies are supposed to receive a business license from their local governments, but only 30-40 percent of them are registered," the
official said. "This is why we could even call this human trafficking."