[Opinion] Ruling Lamenting Vietnamese Wife

“Because of economic difficulties, Huynh Mai (19) married a foreigner who speaks a different language and came to Korea, a country thousands of miles away from home. She never realized her dream of having a happy family but died young. I would like to console her soul,” said Judge Kim Sang-jun of the Daejeon High Court in a ruling, sentencing Huynh Mai’s husband Jang (47) to 12 years behind bars for beating his wife to death. The Judge lamented, “Aren’t we capable of making her wishes come true?”

Huynh Mai was introduced to her husband, who is 28 years older than her, by an international marriage broker in May 2007. From the start, her married life in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, was not happy. She was too young to overcome cultural differences. She was caught leaving the house for Vietnam by her drunken husband. She was beaten to death with 17 ribs fractured. “The best a husband can do for his wife is to have a conversation over difficult matters and be understanding. You don’t know how big a task it is to form a home, which is a big part of a woman’s life,” she wrote in a letter to her husband a day before she was killed.

The number of marriage between a Korean man and a Vietnamese woman increased last year to 8,000. It is often said that Korean rural communities can survive thanks to foreign brides and daughter-in-laws. There are more than 1 million foreign nationals living in Korea. The number of interracial marriages reached 180,000 over the seven years. Multiracial and multicultural era in Korea has begun in earnest. Even under these circumstances, Korea cannot join the ranks of advanced countries if it does not throw away its preoccupation with homogeneity and discrimination against those from poor countries.

In a survey of 55 countries last year by the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, Korea was ranked 51st in the category of resolution of racial discrimination, and brought up the rear in cultural openness. The U.N. Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination regards Korea as a country that has racial discrimination and demands corrections. The U.S. Department of State categorizes international marriage in Korea as human trafficking. Perceptions and attitudes that are not in line with the multicultural and multiracial era can undermine national image and competitiveness.

Editorial Writer Kwon Soon-taek (maypole@donga.com)