Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, rights, shakes hands with Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam during the latter's visit to the Government Complex Seoul, Monday. Lee apologized for the recent case where a Korean husband assaulted his Vietnamese wife,

By Kang Seung-woo

Korea's top court has issued a ruling easing the requirements for foreign wives to stay in Korea even after they get divorced.

The verdict came days after a case where a Korean man was arrested for assaulting his Vietnamese wife, which showed immigrant wives' vulnerability to abusive Korean husbands as they have to endure such violence and abuse to stay here.

According to the law, if foreign wives divorce their Korean husbands but still want to receive resident status, they have to prove their Korean husbands weare entirely responsible for the split-up. But if local courts recognize the wives were in any way partly responsible, they are denied residency.

But the Supreme Court ruled against this Wednesday.

A Vietnamese woman had appealed to the top court to revoke previous lower court rulings that she could no longer stay in Korea following her divorce.

In December 2015, the 23-year-old Vietnamese woman married a 40-year-old Korean man, but they split up in January 2017 after living apart due to a miscarriage triggered by a conflict with her mother-in-law.

The Vietnamese wife was said to have been pressured by her mother-in-law to work at a convenience store despite being pregnant, and as a result had a miscarriage.

A local and a high court said the Korean husband was not fully responsible for the marriage breakdown and she was partly at fault.

However, the top court reversed the verdicts and returned the case to the high court, saying it was rare that a divorce occurs due entirely to just one partner's fault.

"If a divorced foreign spouse's stay can be extended only when the Korean partner is entirely to blame for the split-up, the former would not be able to fully exercise their rights to resolve tensions and the latter may treat the former unfairly," it said.

A top court official said, "The ruling was made to protect immigrant wives who are unfairly at risk of being deported. It will also help correct the immigration office's and the lower courts' ill-advised decisions."

Last week, a video clip showing a Korean man violently assaulting an unresisting Vietnamese wife went viral, leading to public outcry toward the nation's immigration system that critics believe fails to protect immigrant wives.

"If foreign women want stable resident status, they absolutely need their Korean partners' help," said Kang Hye-sook, a co-representative of the Women Migrants Human Rights Center of Korea. "Under this situation, a power gap between partners is inevitable and the Korean government has given the authority in interracial marriages to the Korean spouses."

Following the outrage over the violent video clip, the government pledged stern actions against the husband, with Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon apologizing to Vietnam's Public Security Minister To Lam who was visiting Korea earlier this week.