Number of marriages with foreigners on the rise in SKorea

Seoul, Feb 7 (Yonhap) One out of every ten South Koreanmen and women gets married to a foreigner, with Chinese andVietnamese brides being the most popular, revealed a datereleased here.

A survey done by ''Statistics Korea'' said that 33,300South Koreans tied the knot with foreigners in 2009 alone,accounting for 10.8 per cent of all marriages here. It marks abig jump from 4,710, or 1.2 per cent, in 1990 but a declinefrom 42,356, or 13.5 per cent, in 2005.

In particular, 11,364 South Korean men wedded Chinesewomen and 7,249 others married Vietnamese women in 2009, theagency said.

The number of Filipino brides stood at 1,643, followed byJapan with 1,140, Cambodia with 851, Thailand with 496, theUnited States with 416, Mongolia with 386, Uzbekistan with 365and Nepal with 316, it noted. (Yonhap)