The total number of foreign spouses in Korea is more than 116,000, or 160,000 if those who have acquired Korean citizenship are included. And I know more than 40 of them personally. The number of Filipino men and women who are married to Koreans is 5,306. It’s a little less than I expected but then that figure doesn’t include those who are now Korean citizens. What surprised me is the increasing number of Cambodian spouses.

Foreign spouses surpass 110,000

By county, Chinese formed the biggest group of foreign spouses with 66,115 or 57 percent, followed by Cambodia with 25,640 and Vietnam with 23,301. Filipinos and Japanese numbered 5,306 and 5,711, respectively.

The Chinese as the biggest group of foreign spouses is not surprising at all. This number includes those who are of Korean descent. My sister-in-law’s brother is married to one, a Chinese national with purely Korean heritage.

Some 86 percent of them have lived in Korea less than four years and more than 30 percent of them lived in Gyeonggi Province including Incheon. Seoul has about 25 percent of the foreign spouses, South Gyeongsang Province including Busan has 12 percent, while 10 percent of them live in Jeolla Province including Gwangju.

I didn’t expect to know that more than half of the foreign spouses live in urban areas like Seoul, Incheon, Gwangju and Busan, considering that 96 percent are Asian. There’s a preconceived notion that if you’re an Asian here, you must have come from a poor background and that you’re married to a Korean farmer living in a rural area.

A Korean farmer committed suicide after beating his Filipina wife and three children. I thought it’s an old story but it isn’t. About three or four years ago, a man seriously injured his Filipina wife and his kids too because of jealousy and killed himself after. He thought his wife was having an affair with a Filipino man.

The news report below connected the suicide to the man’s threatened livelihood. He was a cattle farmer and US beef import is a big issue in Korea now. I thought the man is a coward and irresponsible. If he himself is worried of his livelihood, how could he then beat his family and leave them by themselves!

Second cattle farmer commits suicide, injures family

The 41-year-old farmer, who is only identified by his surname Lee and lives in the town of Wolbong-ri, Nasan-myeon, Hampyeong County, was found dead in his home after drinking herbicide at approximately 4:40 a.m. on May 5. Immediately before his suicide, Lee allegedly attempted to kill his 36-year-old wife, who is from the Philippines, and his three children by beating them with a farm-machine implement. The four members of his family were sleeping at the time.

Read the rest of the story here.