Cultural education mandatory for Korean husbands

Korean men looking to marry women from Southeast Asian countries will be required to receive cultural education, the Korea Immigration Service (KIS) said Sunday. Those who skip the course will be prevented from inviting their foreign spouse here.

The move came after a Vietnamese woman was killed by her Korean husband, who had a history of mental instability, last Thursday, just eight days after arriving in Korea for marriage.

The immigration authorities are now preparing programs for those seeking international marriage to prevent violence against prospective foreign wives. Specific rules related to the compulsory program will be announced later.

However, some experts say that this is a makeshift measure and not enough to tackle the repeated incidents of violence against foreign wives by their Korean husbands.

"Korean people first need to remove biased views and prejudices against those from developing countries. Otherwise, nobody can be sure that unfortunate accidents like this won't happen again," said a professor of social studies at Pusan National University.

There are currently 137,000 foreign-born women in the country who have married Korean men. Chinese top the list, accounting for nearly half of the total, followed by Vietnamese, Japanese and Filipinos.

The 20-year-old Vietnamese woman was beaten and stabbed to death in her house in Busan after quarreling with her husband, according to police. The husband told officers that he was instructed by a ghost to kill her during the fight.



동남아女와 결혼하려면 사전교육 받아야

출입국외국인정책본부는 앞으로 중국이나 동남아시아 여성과 국제결혼을 하려는 국내 남성에게 출국 전 사전소양교육을 받아야 한다고 일요일 밝혔다.
출입국정책본부는 또 이들은 사전교육을 받지 않으면 결혼할 외국인 배우자를 초청하지 못하게 할 것이라고 말했다.

이 같은 조치는 지난 8일 부산에서는 국제결혼을 한 20대 베트남 여성이 입국한 지 일주일 만에 정신질환 전력이 있는 40대 한국인 남편과 다투다 흉기에 찔려 숨지는 사건이 발생해 나왔다.

출입국정책본부는 사전교육을 통해 결혼할 때 상대방에게 정확한 신상정보를 제공하지 않거나 가정폭력 또는 심각한 질환 전력이 있는 경우 결혼을 해도 배우자의 국내 초청이 어렵다는 점을 강조한다는 계획이다.

법무부는 사전소양교육의 구체적인 프로그램 등을 포함하는 방안을 조만간 확정해 늦어도 다음달부터는 시행에 들어간다는 방침이다.