SKorean marriage ban to be rescinded

Mom Kunthear

Phnom Penh Post

THE government is set to lift a ban imposed on marriages between Cambodian women and South Korean men, though no new rules or procedures concerning such unions have been established, an Interior Ministry official said Monday.

On March 5, Cambodia temporarily banned marriages between local women and South Korean men after a marriage broker was sentenced to 10 years in prison for recruiting 25 girls from rural areas and arranging for them to be married off to South Korean men. At the time, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said the ban would not be lifted until the government put in place a screening mechanism to prevent trafficking.

Chou Bun Eng, a secretary of state at the Interior Ministry, said Monday that the government would soon resume permitting marriages between Cambodian women and South Korean men, but that no new protocols had been put in place.

“We don’t have strong conditions for allowing marriages between Cambodian women and South Korean men. We just want them to respect the guidelines stipulated in sub-decree 183,” she said, referring to the sub-decree governing marriages between Cambodians and foreigners.

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