☕️ Morning Coffee and the Story of “Importing Brides”

Reading the news in the morning, there are stories that make you both smile and feel a little heavy-hearted…

——————

This morning, I was sitting in a corner of a café, sipping my usual Americano and browsing the news when I unexpectedly came across a rather… startling story.

Kyodo News reported on February 9 that South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party had decided to expel Mr. Kim Hee-su, a county head in Jindo, after he made controversial remarks suggesting the “import” of young women from Vietnam and Sri Lanka to marry men in rural areas.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul was reported to have sent a letter of protest over the disrespectful nature of the remarks. Mr. Kim later issued an apology, explaining that he had intended to highlight the structural problems faced by rural communities, including severe population decline and the growing difficulty of marriage.

Reading this, I found myself both amused and a little saddened. Marriage is a matter of fate and human connection; Vietnamese brides are people, not commodities to be “imported.” Vietnamese women have long been appreciated by many for their diligence and resilience, and language like that understandably feels insulting—public outrage in such a case is hardly surprising.

Thinking about it, though, one realizes that everywhere, young men share a common worry: the fear of remaining single. Perhaps the best advice is simple—live decently, work honestly, and treat others with kindness, so that one day we do not find ourselves being cited as examples in stories about men desperate for wives somewhere in the world.

South Korea is currently the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam and also one of the largest sources of international visitors. But speaking half in jest: if Mr. Kim were ever invited to Vietnam to “learn firsthand” about Vietnamese women, he might need extraordinary courage to accept—because the online community here is known to be swift and sharp in its reactions.

For a brief moment, the trade finance professional in me had a stray thought: what if someone tried to put something like this into a letter of credit?

Then I smiled to myself—no bank would ever agree to issue such a ridiculous LC.

–

11 February 2026

At a traditional café