Koreans in Vietnam is a community of Vietnam. It is a population of only the
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
expatriates along and some
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
ese (people) citizens that have Korean ancestry. Most of these people (them) are expatriates in Vietnam in 21st century. The population initially came in a military capacity, fighting on both sides of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. After the end of the war, there was little
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
migration or tourism in Vietnam, until the rise of the
South Korean economy
The economy of South Korea is a Developed country, highly developed mixed economy. By nominal GDP, it has the List of countries by GDP (nominal), 5th largest economy in Asia and the List of countries by GDP (nominal), 13th largest in the worl ...
and the
decline of the North resulted in an influx of South Korean investors and
North Korean defectors
Since the division of Korea after the end of World War II, North Koreans have fled from the country in spite of legal punishment for political, ideological, religious, economic, moral, personal, or nutritional reasons. Such North Koreans are re ...
, as well as South Korean men seeking Vietnamese wives. However, Vietnamese women experience high levels of domestic violence and abuse due to the difficulties of intercultural marriage.
As of 2011, according to statistics of
South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, they numbered roughly eighty thousand people, making them the second-largest
Korean diaspora
The Korean diaspora (South Korea: or , North Korea: or ) consists of around 7.3 million people, both descendants of early emigrants from the Korean Peninsula, as well as more recent emigres from Korea. Around 84.5% of overseas Koreans live in ...
community in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, after the
Korean community in the Philippines and the tenth-largest in the world.
A more recent estimate from
Vietnam Television
Vietnam Television ( vi, Đài Truyền hình Việt Nam), or VTV, is the national television broadcaster of Vietnam. As the state broadcaster under the direction of the government of Vietnam, VTV is tasked with "propagating the views of the ...
says their population might be as large as 130,000. Vietnam and Korea had a connection in the past via survivors of the
Lý dynasty
The Lý dynasty ( vi, Nhà Lý, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 李朝, Hán Việt: ''Lý triều'') was a Vietnamese dynasty that existed from 1009 to 1225. It was established by Lý Công Uẩn when he overthrew the Early Lê dynasty an ...
of Vietnam fleeing to Korea via Taiwan.
Lý Long Tường/Lee Yong Sang is one such notable figure.
World War II
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
soldiers took Korean women with them as
comfort women
Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ia ...
, after the war a number of Korean women were left behind in Vietnam.
Vietnam War
Both
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
and
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
lent material and manpower support to their respective ideological allies during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, though the number of South Korean troops on the ground was larger.
Then-South Korean president
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960.
Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...
had offered to send troops to Vietnam as early as 1954, but his proposal was turned down by the
U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
; the first South Korean personnel to land in Vietnam, 10 years later, were non-combatants: ten
Taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...
instructors, along with thirty-four officers and ninety-six enlisted men of a Korean Army hospital unit. In total, between 1965 and 1973, 312,853
South Korean soldiers fought in Vietnam; According to Korean sources, they killed 41,400
North Vietnamese Army
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN; vi, Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam, QĐNDVN), also recognized as the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) or the Vietnamese Army (), is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the armed win ...
soldiers and 5,000 civilians.
There were cases of war atrocities in which those that were revealed during the war were promptly investigated with the perpetrators punished.
Others indicate that they were routinely unpunished, with widespread "
My Lai Massacre
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Market ...
-style massacres" having taken place. Controversy still remains as there are more alleged crimes that may not have been revealed. There were also thousands of
children of mixed Korean and Vietnamese descent.
Korean Presidents have repeatedly apologised and expressed regret on the issue, and South Korean civil groups and individuals have taken a pro-active effort in reconciliation, yet there is no compensation happened.
As a result of a decision of the
Korean Workers' Party
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party o ...
in October 1966, in early 1967
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
sent a fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese 921st and 923rd fighter squadrons defending Hanoi. They stayed through 1968; 200 pilots were reported to have served.
In addition, at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well.
Post-war migration
South Koreans
Four years after the 1992
normalisation of diplomatic ties, South Korean trade and investment in Vietnam grew rapidly.
Following along with the investment funds, the South Korean expatriate community in Vietnam has grown significantly. According to Chang Keun Lee of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam, Koreans formed the country's second-largest group of expatriates, with only the
Taiwanese expatriate community being larger; he estimated that half lived in
Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
.
[ Statistics from South Korea's ]Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade may refer to:
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (Jamaica)
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (New Zealand)
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (South Korea)
South Korea's Ministry of ...
show that their population has grown by nearly fifty times in little more than a decade. Their population more than trebled from 1,788 in 1997 to 6,226 in 2003, then jumped to more than thirteen times that size—84,566—by just six years later. However, in the two years after that, the population would only grow by a further 4% to 88,120. Some anti-Korean sentiment also exists, fueled by decreases in promised investment, reports of poor treatment faced by Vietnamese migrants in South Korea, and the 2008 murder of a Hanoi National University
Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU; vi, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, ĐHQGHN) is a public research university in Vietnam. The university has 10 member colleges (called "universities") and faculties. VNU is one of two Vietnam's nationa ...
student by her South Korean boyfriend. As both countries also share similar cultures (both belonged to the Chinese cultural sphere) and share similar recent histories, South Korean investors soon took a strong interest in investing in Vietnam.
South Koreans have established a number of community organisations in Vietnam, including Koviet, a group for second-generation Korean youth raised in Vietnam, founded in 1995
North Koreans
Before 2004, thousands of North Korean defectors
Since the division of Korea after the end of World War II, North Koreans have fled from the country in spite of legal punishment for political, ideological, religious, economic, moral, personal, or nutritional reasons. Such North Koreans are re ...
had crossed Vietnam's northern border to find the way to reach South Korea. Until 2004, Vietnam was described as the "preferred Southeast Asian escape route" for North Korean defectors, largely due to its less-mountainous terrain. Though Vietnam remains an officially communist country and maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea, growing South Korean investment in Vietnam has prompted Hanoi to quietly permit the transit of North Korean refugees to Seoul. The increased South Korean presence in the country also proved a magnet for defectors; four of the biggest defector safehouses in Vietnam were run by South Korean expatriates, and many defectors indicated that they chose to try to cross the border from China into Vietnam precisely because they had heard about such safehouses. In July 2004, 468 North Korean refugees were airlifted to South Korea in the single largest mass defection; Vietnam initially tried to keep their role in the airlift secret, and in advance of the deal, even anonymous sources in the South Korean government would only tell reporters that the defectors came from "an unidentified Asian country". Following the airlift, Vietnam would tighten up border controls and deport several safe-house operators.
Education
Vietnam's first school for South Korean nationals, the weekend Hanoi Hangul School, was founded on 1 March 1996, enrolling 122 students at the kindergarten through middle school levels; two Korean international schools offering a full-day programme were also later established, the Korean International School, HCMC in Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
(founded 4 August 1998, enrolling 745 students at the kindergarten through high school levels); and , a smaller school in Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
(founded 13 July 2006, with 63 elementary-level students). Prior to the opening of the Korean international school in Hanoi, most Korean families in Hanoi sent their children to local schools, as the other international schools were too expensive.
International marriage
South Korean men started seeking wives in Vietnam. Two to three thousand South Korean marriage agencies were created which specialize in making such matches. Though in the 1990s most were farmers
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...
, an increasing number of urban men have also resorted to arranging marriages through international matchmaking agencies; they cite the difficulty faced by uneducated men or those with low incomes in attracting Vietnamese women to marry them. However, reports suggest high rates of domestic violence, abuse, and divorce.
See also
* Lai Daihan
* Vietnamese people in Korea
* Hari Won
Woossi
References
External links
Korean School of Ho Chi Minh City
{{Ethnic groups in Vietnam
Ethnic groups in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
Vietnam, Koreans in