She was 29 years old and her future husband was in his 50s, court documents show. She only spoke Vietnamese, he spoke Korean.
Despite the communication barrier, the union went ahead. On November 4, 2018 -- a day after they met -- they were married in front of her family in Vietnam.
Seven months later, Trinh -- a name CNN has chosen to use as her real name has been suppressed under South Korean law -- moved to South Korea to be with her husband, named Shin. Three months after that, she was dead.
Trinh is one of thousands of Vietnamese women to marry South Korean men through matchmakers who set up brides with grooms -- a service that is not only encouraged in South Korea, it is even subsidized by local authorities.
Some couples have successful, happy marriages. But many foreign brides who meet men this way, officially classified as migrants through marriage, have become victims of discrimination, domestic violence and even murder at the hands of their husbands. The statistics paint a grim picture. More than 42% of foreign wives reported having suffered domestic violence -- including physical, verbal, sexual, and financial abuse -- in a 2017 poll by the National Human Rights Commission. By comparison, about 29% of South Korean women surveyed by the country's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family last year said they were victims of domestic violence -- again including a range of forms of abuse.
Experts say discriminatory rules, coupled with sexism and racism in society, are to blame, and are pushing for institutional changes to keep foreign brides safe.
Communication issues
Right from the beginning, Trinh and Shin had difficulty communicating.
After their wedding, Shin went home to South Korea, court documents show. They lived apart for months, and though they kept in touch via a messaging app, they fought frequently as Trinh often asked for additional financial support.
Finally, on August 16, 2019, Trinh arrived in South Korea. She moved to Yangju city in Gyeonggi Province, surrounding the capital Seoul, to live with her husband. The court documents did not specify why there was a delay in her arrival in South Korea, although a couple must meet specific criteria to get a spousal visa, including satisfying an income threshold.