By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

Divorces between couples involving a Korean and non-Korean surged by 41 percent last year.

According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), Monday, the number of divorces between couples composed of Korean and non-Korean spouses recorded 8,828 last year, soaring 40.6 percent from the previous year.

Their divorces have been soaring notably each year, growing by 46.8 percent in 2006, 25.8 percent in 2005 and 57.1 percent in 2004.

Divorces between Korean-foreign nationals reached 7.1 percent of total divorces last year, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous year.

Divorces involving a Korean husband and foreign wife totaled 5,794, taking 65.6 percent of the total. Divorces with a Chinese wife recorded 3,665; Vietnamese wife 895; Filipino wife 220; and Japanese wife 219.

Among Korean women who divorced foreign husbands, 3,034 divorced their Japanese husband, 649 their Chinese husband; and 259 their American husband.

``The number of divorces between Koreans and Chinese wives or Japanese husbands is high because there have been a huge number of marriages between Koreans and people from these countries,'' the statistical office said.

Four out of five of these divorced couples were married for less than four years. Most of the couples had no children.

The number of people who untied the knot totaled 124,600 last year, down 0.4 percent from the previous year. It has been falling since 2003 when the figure was 167,100. The crude divorce rate, which is the recorded number of divorces per 1,000 persons, was 2.5, down 0.1 from a year ago.

Divorces between senior couples, however, surged. The number of divorced men aged 55 or older grew 9.9 percent, and the figure for women aged over 55 grew 9.3 percent.

The average age of divorced men was 43.2, and for women, 39.5.

The main reason for divorce was cited as character differences between spouses (46.8 percent), economic reasons (13.6 percent), trouble among family members (8 percent) and spousal infidelity (7.8 percent).

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr