Cambodia puts ban on marrying Koreans to stop brides being sold

Cambodia has barred its women from marrying South Korean men after two dozen were sold into marriage.

A foreign ministry spokesman said the ban - the second time one has been imposed - would remain while the government worked to ensure that South Korean men hoping to marry Cambodian women are able to prove they are single and do not have a prison record.

"We want to make sure that their marriages are real marriages, not fake, and not involved with human trafficking," Koy Kuong said.

On 3 March a Cambodian man was convicted of arranging marriages between 25 Korean men and Cambodian brides.

In 2008 Cambodia banned marriages to foreigners after the International Organisation for Migration said people traffickers were making profitable business from supplying poor Cambodian brides to South Korean men.

Nearly 60 per cent of marriages to foreigners in Cambodia involve Koreans, most of which are arranged through brokers, according to the Korean news agency Yonhap.