HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — They came across for the very first time at a resort restaurant.

He’d flown five hours from Southern Korea. She’d come eight hours by coach through the countryside that is vietnamese. The attraction ended up being modest but sufficient. About 18 hours later, these were married.

With all the change of bands, given by an agent, Danh Thi Cam Loan and Lee Kwan-ju became unexpected lovers in a matchmaking gamble — one in which strangers sharing neither language nor culture attempt a life together.

Such mail-order marriages have boomed in Southern Korea within the last 15 years, driven by a glut of low-earning males who battle to find lovers inside their achievement-obsessed country. But a nagging issue has continued to develop: a lot of for the marriages are dropping aside nearly as fast as they begin.

Mounting concern concerning the mail-order marriages happens to be prompting Southern Korea to more forcefully control the procedure. [Read more...]