South Korean man turns himself in for murder of Vietnamese wife, probe on

The victim was identified as Nguyen Thi Bup from the southern province of Ca Mau, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday, citing the Vietnamese embassy in the East Asian country.

She went to South Korea in 2010 and married Lee Jae-dong, 52, the murder suspect.

Two years later they divorced. In January last year the victim returned to South Korea and remarried him, but the couple reportedly constantly quarreled.

They lived in Gumi town in Gyeongsangon Province, and on March 6 he repeatedly stabbed her in the abdomen with a knife. Though she was hospitalized, Bup succumbed to blood loss.

Lee turned himself in at a local police station.

Bup’s ashes are at Vien Ngo Pagoda in central Korea, awaiting completion of procedures to be brought to Vietnam.

Vietnam has overtaken China as the country with the largest number of brides in South Korea, according to the South Korean embassy in Hanoi. Around 6,000 Vietnamese women have been marrying South Koreans every year for the last few years.

Many Vietnamese women from poor rural families marry South Korean men in the hope of finding a better life in the wealthy nation. But it is not always a fairytale ending, and there have been a number of reports of suicides and fatal beatings, often due to conflicts from language and cultural barriers.