Vietnamese made top choice among foreign nationals to wed Korean men last year, while Chinese men became husband favorites for Korean women, according to government statistics.

The number of international marriages between Koreans and foreign nationals came to 26,000 cases last year, down 3.2 percent from a year earlier, said Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

Marriages between Korean men and foreign women rose by 1.0 percent to 14,800 cases, but marriages between foreign men and Korean women fell by 12.6 percent to 5,800 cases. International marriages represented 7.3 percent of all marriages last year, up by 0.3 percentage point.

By nationality of foreign spouses, Vietnamese wives took the top spot with 36.3 percent, followed by Chinese (28.3 percent) and Filipinos (5.8 percent).

Among foreign husbands, Chinese nationals accounted for the largest share with 25.4 percent, nudging out American husbands (23.9 percent) who had maintained the top spot for three straight years from 2013 to 2015.

Divorce with a foreign national accounted for 7,700 cases of total, down by 6.9 percent from a year ago. Divorce with a foreign woman fell by 2.3 percent to 5,600 cases, and divorce with a foreign man fell by 17.6 percent to 2,100 cases.

By Kim Se-woong

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