Korean octogenarian gets 25 years in jail for murdering Vietnamese daughter-in-law

A court in South Korea has sentenced a man in his 80s to 25 years in prison for stabbing his Vietnamese daughter-in-law to death in June.

The man, identified only by his surname Kim, was found guilty of murder by the Seoul Northern District Court on Friday for the incident that took place at an apartment where Kim lived with his son and daughter-in-law, the Korean Herald reported.

The victim had obtained Korean citizenship and had lived in the country for 10 years since marrying Kim’s son.

According to investigators, Kim said his son and daughter-in-law did not "give him money and treated him without respect."

The court pointed out that Kim had deliberately planned the murder by locking the door and preparing the "weapon" in advance.

It also said the murder was particularly cruel because it was carried out in the presence of the victim’s young children, the Korean Herald said.

According to immigration data published by The Korea Times, there were 147,295 Vietnamese people living in South Korea at the end November last year, accounting for 7.4 percent of all expats.

Media reports suggest that many young Vietnamese women from poor families meet their future South Korean husbands through illegal brokerage services.

Statistics show that almost 40 percent of those marriages end in divorce within five years. Some blame cultural and language differences for the break-ups, while others say they have been abused by their husbands and new families.