Vietnamese people in Korea

Vietnamese people in Korea have a history going back to the latter days of Vietnam's Ly Dynasty; several princes of Ly sought refuge with the kingdom of Goryeo. [ Professors review Vietnamese-Korean cultural relationship,http://english.vietnamnet.vn/lifestyle/2007/07/719203/] After the division of Korea and the Korean War, Vietnamese people began settling in both North and South Korea.

Early history

One of the earliest Vietnamese people in Korea was Lý Dương Côn (李陽焜), an adopted son of Emperor Lý Nhân Tông; following a succession crisis, he fled to Goryeo. He is remembered in modern-day Korea as the founder of the Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do "bon-gwan" of the Lee family. [citation|url=http://www.rootsinfo.co.kr/name/frame.cgi?sirname=lee&bon=lee_jsn|title=RootsInfo Korea|date=2007|accessdate=2007-07-09|contribution=旌善李氏 (Jeongseon Lee)] citation|url=http://www.tuoitre.com.vn/Tianyon/Index.aspx?ArticleID=172417&ChannelID=89|title=Đi tìm dòng họ Lý ở Hàn Quốc: 800 năm hoài cố hương (Looking for the Lee family in Korea)|author=Trung Nghia|periodical=Tuoi Tre
date=2006-11-14|accessdate=2007-07-02] Later, a Vietnamese prince of the Ly Dynasty, Lý Long Tường (the seventh son of emperor Lý Anh Tông) and his crew of several thousand mandarins and servants sailed directly to Korea after hearing that the Ly Dynasty would be overthrown by the Tran Dynasty. Lý Anh Tông and his crew sought refuge in Goryeo in 1226. The Vietnamese prince made significant contributions, sharing warfare tactics which would help Korea repel Mongol invasions. A report on Lý Long Tường was broadcast by the South Korean TV channel KBS in December 1995. [Kelly, Tim (2006-09-18), “Ho Chi Minh Money Trail”, Forbes, . Retrieved on 27 March 2007 ]

Legend has it that King Gojong of Goryeo (1213-1259) had dreamt of a grand phoenix flying from the south landing in his nation; therefore, he ordered the local government of Haeju, Hwanghae to give the Vietnamese refugees a red-carpet welcome and let them live in a manor in the nearby countryside. Lý Long Tường thus became the patriarch of the Hwasan, Ongjin-gun "bon-gwan" of the Lee family. On November 6, 1958, during his visit to South Vietnam, South Korean president Syngman Rhee reportedly told the local press that he was a descendant of Ly Long Tuong. [citation|url=http://www.rootsinfo.co.kr/name/frame.cgi?sirname=lee&bon=lee_hws|contribution=花山李氏 (The Hwasan Lee clan)|title=RootsInfo Korea|date=2007|accessdate=2007-07-09]

After the division of Korea

Students from North Vietnam began going to North Korea to study as early as the 1960s, even before the formal establishment of Korean-language education in their country. [citation|url=http://newsletter.kf.or.kr/english/contents.asp?vol=51&lang=English&no=545|title=Korean Studies in Vietnam|journal=Korea Foundation Newsletter|date=February 2005|volume=14|issue=1|last=Le|first=Quang Thiem|accessdate=2007-07-09] The current Vietnamese ambassador to South Korea is a graduate of Kim Il-sung University. [citation|url=http://article.joins.com/article/article.asp?total_id=442471|title=`우리는 김일성대학 동문 사이`|periodical=JoongAng Ilbo|date=2005-01-27|accessdate=2007-07-09|last=Choe|first=Won-gi] The son of a former staff member in the Vietnamese embassy in Pyongyang, who also attended Kim Il-sung University between 1998 and 2002, gave an interview in 2004 with South Korean newspaper "The Chosun Ilbo" about the experiences he had while living there. [citation|publisher=The Chosun Ilbo|date=2004-10-05|title=김일성大 베트남 유학생이 본 북한]

Vietnamese migration to South Korea began later, but quickly grew to a much larger scale; their population consists mainly of migrant workers and women introduced to local husbands through marriage agencies. [citation|last=Nguyen|first=Nhu|date=1999|title=The Reality: Vietnamese Migrant Workers in South Korea|location=Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam|publisher=Mobility Research and Support Center] In 1994, 20,493 labour migrants went from Vietnam to South Korea on traineeship visas; by 1997, this had risen by about 10% to 22,325. Migrants were mostly male and unskilled; they were employed in small and medium-sized companies in labour-intensive industries such as fishing and manufacturing. [citation|title=Migration in the Asia Pacific: Population, Settlement and Citizenship Issues|last=Iredale|first=Robin R.|coauthors=Castles, Stephen; Hawksley, Charles|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|location=Cheltenham, United Kingdom|date=2003|isbn=1840648600|page=173] Spousal migration has a somewhat longer history; during the Vietnam War, some of the more than 300,000 South Korean soldiers and civilian support staff stationed in Vietnam married Vietnamese women and brought them back to Korea; however, many of these marriages ended in divorce.citation|url=http://www.hamline.edu/~rkagan/Publications_Asian%20Literary%20Views%20on%20Vietnam.html|title=Disarming Memories: Japanese, Korean and American Literature on the Vietnam War|publisher=Hamline University|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|last=Kagan|first=Richard C.] Spousal migration would not become a large-scale phenomenon until the 1990s, when South Korean men, unable to attract wives locally, began to turn to marriage agencies to seek brides in overseas countries, including Vietnam. As of 2006, 5,000 Vietnamese brides immigrate to South Korea every year.citation|url=http://members.forbes.com/global/2006/0918/028.html|title=Ho Chi Minh Money Trail|last=Kelly|first=Tim|date=2006-09-18|accessdate=2007-03-27|periodical=Forbes] [cite news|title=Marriage brokers in Vietnam cater to S. Korean bachelors|last=Onishi|first=Norimitsu|authorlink=Norimitsu Onishi|periodical=International Herald Tribune|date=2007-02-21|accessdate=2007-03-27|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/21/news/brides.php] [citation|last=Onishi|first=Norimitsu|title=Wed to Strangers, Vietnamese Wives Build Korean Lives|date=2008-03-30|accessdate=2008-03-31|periodical=The New York Times|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/world/asia/30brides.html?pagewanted=all]

ee also

*Koreans in Vietnam

References