On November 23, a Vietnamese mother jumped from the 18th floor of an apartment building holding her two children in her arms, in the southern port city of Busan in South Korea, informed the local police.
The mother, identified as 27-year-old Vo Thi Minh Phuong, jumped with her seven-year-old daughter and three-year-old son from the 18th floor, with all three meeting their deaths instantly.
After eight years of marriage, Phuong, from the southern province of Hau Giang, and her 47-year-old South Korean husband had recently filed for divorce, police said.
The husband said he failed to stop the suicide as the mother had locked herself in a room before jumping, the police informed.
The Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul has requested competent agencies in South Korean to launch an investigation into the three untimely deaths.
The Embassy also promised to assist Phuong’s relatives in receiving her body and repatriating it to Vietnam.
According to initial comments, family conflicts could be the cause of the woman’s suicide with her children.
Police are investigating whether domestic violence was behind the suicide, adding that investigators would look into a suicide note written in Vietnamese and question the husband for further details, released the local media.
In the two-page suicide note, Phuong wrote, “There are days when I can no longer endure being beaten ruthlessly by my husband who accuses me of being unfaithful.
My husband’s relatives also do not allow me to meet my children. Life is meaningless for me now”.
Phuong also petitioned the South Koreans to bury her along with her two children in the same grave in Vietnam.
