The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign national spouses rose more than 18 percent in 2023, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The number of international marriages fell sharply to some 15,300 cases in 2020 from the previous year's 23,600 and further to about 13,000 the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the figure bounced back to over 17,000 in 2022 and further to nearly 20,000 last year.

Vietnamese women took up the largest share of all wives of foreign nationality at 33.5 percent last year, followed by Chinese and Thai women.

Of foreign national husbands, those from the US accounted for the largest share with 27.7 percent, followed by husbands from China and Vietnam.

The number of Vietnamese national husbands marrying South Korean women, in particular, advanced 35.2 percent on-year last year, as an increasing number of naturalized South Korean women originally from Vietnam married Vietnamese men after divorcing their South Korean husbands, according to officials. (Yonhap)