A large number of foreign wives sought legal advice on divorce last year, a government counseling center said Thursday, causing concern that an already high divorce rate for international marriages could rise.

In a 2010 report released by the Emergency Support Center for Migrant Women, legal counseling sessions numbered 10,604, up 23 percent from the previous year.

Although legal advice does not necessarily lead to divorce, the figures are similar to 2009, which saw a divorce rate of more than 35 percent among international marriage couples.

According to Kwon Mi-kyung, counseling director at the support center, the high number of both consultations and divorces by foreign wives of Korean husbands stems from domestic violence, family conflicts, and sometimes the gap between reality and the expectations they had about Korea.

“Since the men tend to be much older than the wives, there are cases where the men excessively control their wives in fear that the women will run away or complain,” she said.

Marital and family conflicts in 2010 saw the second biggest increase from the year before at 12,780 cases, or a 30 percent increase from 2009.

“The patriarchal consciousness and customs of Korean families expect foreign wives to quickly adapt to life which causes confusion for migrant women and eventually leads to conflict,” said Kwon.

The number of consultations sought for assault and rape increased as well by 12 percent to 6,985 cases.

According to the report, some husbands were found to have forced themselves upon their wives. In other cases, men from the husband’s family sexually harassed or raped foreign women.

“There are always cases where woman’s rights are violated,” said Kwon.

According to the data, there has been a 24 percent increase to 54,194 in the total number of consultations from 2009 to 2010 and most of the counseling sessions were regarding information on learning Korean, rearing children and dealing with issues while living here.

“Migrant women get married (to Korean men) hoping to experience the ‘Korean dream’ and when their expectations are shattered, they easily consider divorce,” she said.

The support center runs seven different locations throughout the country including Seoul and Busan, and people may receive consultation via phone, online or in-house visits.

The center can be reached at 1577-1366.

By Robert Lee (rjmlee@heraldcorp.com)