Marriages between Vietnamese men and South Korean women triple over a decade

A couple at Seoul station on Sep. 29, 2020. Photo by AFP

According to Yonhap News Agency, this put Vietnamese men as the third largest group of foreign husbands in South Korea, making up 15.8% of the total. The most significant proportion comes from the U.S., representing 27.7%, with men from China in second place at 18.4%.

At the same time, a notable portion of the marriages between Vietnamese men and women of South Korean nationality involves those who were once married to South Korean men, according to the Chosun Daily.

In 2022, out of the 792 South Korean women who entered into marriage with Vietnamese men, 556 were remarriages.

Among these, 482, or 86.7%, were women who originally came from Vietnam and had become naturalized South Korean citizens. They acquired South Korean nationality through their first marriage with local men, then divorced, and later remarried Vietnamese men

In 2023, Vietnamese women constituted the largest group of foreign wives in South Korea, holding a 33.5% share, with Chinese and Thai wives following at 18.1% and 13.7% respectively.