Koreans in Vietnam

Koreans in Vietnam form an unrecognized minority group in Vietnam.

The group is made up predominantly of ethnic Korean expatriates who immigrated to Vietnam and ethnic Kinh people (Vietnamese) people with Korean citizenship. A number of Koreans initially arrived in Vietnam in a military capacity, fighting on both sides of the Vietnam War, depending on their political affiliations. After the end of the war, there was little Korean migration or tourism in Vietnam, until the rapid development of the South Korean economy and the North Korean famine resulted in an influx of South Korean investors and North Korean defectors. A sizeable number of South Korean men settled in the country for marital reasons. Reportedly, Vietnamese women experience high levels of domestic violence and abuse due to the difficulties of intercultural marriage.^[2][3][4]

As of 2011, according to statistics of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, there were 1800,000 Korean citizens in Vietnam, making them the largest Korean diaspora community in Southeast Asia and the eighth-largest in the world.^[1] A more recent estimate from Vietnam Television put their number at 130,000.^[5] Vietnam and Korea maintained political relations in the past via the Lý dynasty of Vietnam fleeing to Korea through Taiwan. Lý Long Tường/Lee Yong Sang is one such notable figure.