Seoul to consult ambassadors on international marriages

The government has decided to launch a consulting group to discuss international marriage and multicultural policy together with foreign ambassadors here.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will hold an inaugural meeting Thursday inviting high-ranking diplomats from seven Asian countries where a growing number of women seek a Korean husband.

The discussion forum comes amid concerns growing over the effects of allowing international marriages without much oversight.

In January last year, a 20-year-old Vietnamese woman was murdered by her 47-year-old Korean husband just eight days after her arrival in Korea. The young woman and her family had not been informed about the husband’s mental illness by the marriage broker.

With international couples complaining about cultural differences, the divorce rate among them has also continued to grow in recent years. The figure surged to 9.4 percent per year in 2009 from 2.4 percent five years ago.

Minister Paik Hee-young plans to express the government’s willingness to improve the overall marriage system and to introduce new policy regarding 1 million foreign residents and their families here.

In a revision last year to the law on international marriage, would-be spouses in both countries have to report their personal details, including their health and criminal records.

The marriage brokers are required to translate the documents in the language of the prospective foreign spouses. They are also obliged to offer interpretation service in face-to-face meetings.

As part of the efforts, the ministry also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnamese Women’s Association last year and will dispatch a ministry official who oversees the whole process of marriage in Vietnam from January.

“Education that international marriage seekers are to receive in their home country is the most important thing,” said Lee Bok-sil, director general of youth and family policy at the ministry.

The ministry has conducted cultural education programs for would-be spouses in Vietnam, Mongolia and the Philippines.

Lee said that she will request cooperation during the meeting on Thursday to introduce the programs to other countries such as Cambodia and Uzbekistan.

Those who were to attend the meeting included Philippine Ambassador Luis Teodoro Cruz; Vietnamese Ambassador Tran Trong Toan; Cambodian Ambassador Ky Sim Chan; Uzbekistani Deputy Ambassador Alisher Okhunjonov; Mongolian Consul Lombo Janchivdorj; and Narat Vidyannanda, first secretary from Thailand.

As of January, 2010, there were a total of 181,671 foreign immigrants by marriage in Korea, up 8.7 percent from the same period in 2009.

Of them, 89.7 percent were women, and 31.1 percent gained Korean citizenship.

Ethnic Koreans in China and Chinese people accounted for nearly 60 percent of the foreign spouses here, followed by the Vietnamese (19.1 percent), Filipinos (5.8 percent) and the Japanese (2.9 percent).

The number of children from multicultural households was 121,935 last year, with 62.1 percent of them aged under 6.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)