Hanoi  Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested five local people for running an illegal marriage brokerage that matched Vietnamese women and South Korean men, a police officer said Wednesday.

Mai Van Tan, director of Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Social Order Crimes Investigation, said his department arrested five people as they were parading 51 women in front of six South Korean men at a house of Binh Tan District of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

"Vietnam's laws don't prohibit people to get married with foreigners, but the laws ask them to register with judiciaries and it takes time to do that, so people don't want to do that," Tan said. "Instead, they want to get married through illegal marriage brokers."

Tan said the South Koreans' passports were being held to prevent them from leaving the country unless each of them paid a fine of 15 million dong (847 dollars).

The state-run Thanh Nien newspaper on Wednesday said in early July, five Korean men contacted Nguyen Quang Mau, 47, of Ho Chi Minh City, the leader of the ring, to ask for a parade of women for matching.

The online vnexpress said the ring found 51 women, all aged in their 20s. The five South Korean men are in their 40s.

Vu Thi Bach Yen, 26, one of the ring's alleged members, told police that each South Korean man who found a wife was required to pay 10,000 dollars to the marriage broker. The ring would pay 500 dollars to the chosen girl, and the rest shared among members of the ring.

Marriage brokers are legal in Vietnam but must be licensed by the state. Police said they lack the authority to impose criminal penalties for illegal marriage brokering.

Members of the marriage ring face administrative fines for license violations but will not be charged with a crime.

The women recruited by the brokers generally come from impoverished areas of Vietnam's Mekong Delta region. Many of them are illiterate. (dpa)