A South Korean millionaire is seeking someone to marry his “too old and short” daughter and a matchmaking agency tasked with the search says it has received 200 applications in four days.

The Sunoo agency said on Monday that the unidentified man in his 60s, whose wealth amounts to about 100-billion won (about R780-million), wants a spouse for his daughter who will also be like a son to him.

“This father is looking for a son-in-law to marry his daughter,” Sunoo said in a notice on its website.

“He wants a man who can lead his family, which has no sons.”

The website describes the woman as a 38-year-old, US-educated and Christian professional. “Despite the shortcomings of being a bit too old and short, she is top-notch in terms of other conditions,” it said.

“The man she wants should be tidy, healthy and smart and raised in the same religion in an upright family.”

It is rare in South Korea for a man to be considered part of his wife’s family. Normally the woman is considered to become part of the husband’s family after wedlock.

The notice has received mixed reactions.

“It is a huge sum – 100-billion won. To become a son of such a wealthy family is not that bad,” a South Korean man in his 20s, interviewed by YTN television, said jokingly.

Sunoo advises applicants not just to think about the money, according to Yonhap news agency. But an anonymous Internet comment complained that such a husband could be seen as nothing more than a “slave or servant”.

By Sirius on 14-06-2007