The number of marriages between South Korean women and Vietnamese men has nearly tripled over the past decade from 279 in 2013 to 793 in 2022, according to data released by Statistics Korea.

Some 792 South Korean women married Vietnamese men in 2022, marking a 283 percent rise from 279 in 2013, Statistics Korea reported on March 20.

Year-on-year, the number of South Korean women marrying Vietnamese men rose by 25.2 percent in 2022, 4.7 times higher than the overall increase of marriages between South Korean women and all non-South Korean men.

Vietnamese men are currently the third largest group of foreign husbands in South Korea, accounting for 15.8 percent of the total and ranking after China (18.4 percent) and the U.S. (27.7 percent). 

Among the 792 South Korean women who married Vietnamese men in 2022, 556 were entering into their second marriage. Of these, 482 were Vietnamese women who had previously obtained South Korean nationality through marriage and then divorced before remarrying a Vietnamese man. 

The number of South Korean wives who remarried Vietnamese men after divorcing their first husband rose from 420 in 2021 to 556 in 2022 and 752 in 2023, according to Statistics Korea. 

Last year, the number of divorces between multicultural couples increased 5.1 percent year-on-year to 6,000, the data showed.

The sharp rise in Vietnamese women who naturalize as South Koreans and then remarry Vietnamese men has raised concerns that some Vietnamese women may be seeking to marry Korean men only to obtain South Korean nationality, the Chosun Daily commented.

In 2023, the overall number of multicultural marriages in South Korea reached 20,000, up 18.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data.

These multicultural marriages accounted for 10.2 percent of the total number of marriages in the East Asian nation last year, registering an 8.7 percent rise from 2022, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing the data.

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