The number of foreign students studying in South Korea topped the 120,000-mark for the first time last month, the justice ministry said Friday.

It was tallied at 122,082 as of the end of September, up 3.8 percent from the previous month and up 19.6 percent from a year earlier.

China topped the list of native countries from which foreign students had come with 70,508 or 58 percent, trailed by Vietnam with 13,004, Mongolia with 5,814, Japan with 2,773, Uzbekistan with 2,232 and the United States with 1,672.

In terms of purposes of stay, overseas studies accounted for the lion's share with 85,473 students, training in Korean language skills with 36,597 students and training in foreign languages with 12 students.

During the mentioned month, the number of foreign residents gained 2.3 percent from the previous month to 2.03 million.  (Yonhap)