Brides and victims

Your long front page article on March 14 on the recent and mysterious death of a Vietnamese bride whose mother came to Korea to learn how she died was heart-rending. Your editorial in the same issue speaks of another Vietnamese bride (19 years old) killed in 2007 by her Korean husband who has just been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The juxtaposition of these two stories on the tragic fates of young foreign women “imported” into Korea by older rural Korean men should serve as a strong call to all of us to pay more attention to the crying needs of the powerless in Korea today. I cannot imagine the callousness of those in positions of power, nor the fact that killing a woman merits a prison sentence of only 12 years. Is it just Korean men and the well-placed in society who are entitled to full justice?
We all need to do far more than simply express our condolences for the loss of the young brides.
Sonia Reid Strawn, United Methodist missionary, Seoul