South Korea: a Vietnamese bride was stabbed to death by her mentally ill Korean husband

July 14, 2010
Youngbee Dale
Human Rights Examiner

AFP reported yesterday that a 20 years old Vietnamese bride was murdered by her 47 year old Korean husband. She was stabbed to death by her husband eight days after she arrived in South Korea. According to the police, her husband said that he heard the ghost voice telling him to kill the bride during the heated argument. The report said that he had been treated 57 times for schizophrenia since July 2005. But the report is silent on the matters of whether the Vietnamese bride knew what she was getting herself into. Such deceptive elements of South Korean's international marriage is why it is a type of human trafficking.

Why this is human trafficking

Many women from South Asian countries often have no idea as to who they are marrying themselves into. These women meet their South Korean husbands through the arrangement made by the international marriage agencies. An agency receives the fees from the South Korean man and present a number of women as his choices for his potential future bride. Once the man picks a woman out of the group of bridal choices, the Korean man and the chosen woman quickly move onto a marriage ceremony. The elements of human trafficking is present on the process of such arranged marriage. These women, when they decide to marry a South Korean man, has no idea that many of these South Korean bachelors are poor, old, and sometimes mentally ill. Nobody, including the South Korean government and the agency staff inform the women that the women may have to deal with domestic violence and the husband's psychotic behaviors for life.

It is true that these South Asian women are not kidnapped and forced into marriage just as some women in India or Middle Eastern countries are. But, if such forced marriage is considered as human trafficking, so are many of the international marriage cases between a South Asia woman and a South Korean man. Though they are not forced into marriage with a South Korean man, many of these women are certainly deceived into marrying a poor, old, and sometimes mentally ill South Korean husband whom these women otherwise would not have chose to marry. In this regards, such international marriage between a South Asian woman and South Korean man should not be treated any differently than the forced marriage in Middle Eastern countries.

South Korean government takes action

In response to the murder of a 20 year old Vietnamese bride, South Korean government said that it will screen bachelors seeking foreign brides from now on. The government also announced the following statement in regards to the screening process identifying an eligible bachelors for international marriage:

Those with a history of mental illness or a violent crime record and those who have married and divorced foreign brides three times or more will face restrictions on applying for visas for their would-be brides

Koreans seeking foreign wives will have to take a class on human rights and foreign customs and culture

Justice is still nowhere to be found on behalf of the victims

Regardless of how effective the South Korean government thinks of the new screening policy, none of that brings justice to the 20 year old innocently murdered bride nor any other women previously victimized by Korean husbands. The South Korean government, so far, never said a word about how it was going to compensate the victim's family in Vietnam nor would it prosecute the international marriage agency for its deceptive process. Perhaps, the government feels no obligation to the injustice carried out on the 20 year old Vietnamese victim. While such international marriage primarily benefit South Korean government's population policy, the government has continuously failed to provide the treatment that these South Asian brides deserve as human beings. Granted there has been some improvement on protecting their rights, the equal rights for these South Asian brides in South Korea persist to be far from reality.