The government has intensified monitoring of matchmaking agencies and  expanded counselling for foreign wives. From next month, prospective husbands will have to present a financial statement and verify their marital status, especially whether they had invited overseas brides more than twice in the past five years.

Would-be grooms will have to take courses on international marriage."Although the matter of marriage lies in the personal arena, false and speedy international marriages are intertwined with social problems," ministry official Son Hong Ki told Yonhap news agency.

"The specific legal guidelines on international marriages will help create healthy multicultural families."South Korea, once a racially homogeneous society, is seeing more and more international marriages -- especially by farmers as single Korean women move to the cities.One out of every 10 marriages in 2009, or 33,300 out of 309,759, were international marriages, mostly between Korean men and women from China, Vietnam and the Philippines.