About 8 percent of all murders in Korea are committed by foreigners, although they still account for a much smaller proportion of the population.

According to statistics published by police on Wednesday, the number of foreigners living in the country rose 30 percent from 1.06 million in 2007 to 1.4 million this year, but over the same period the number of crimes committed by foreigners here rose 85 percent from 14,524 to 26,915.

Their crimes are also becoming more violent. Foreigners accounted for 7.9 percent of the 1,298 people accused of murder in 2011, although foreigners account for just 2.8 percent of the population.

Violent crimes such as murder or rape made up 31 percent of the crimes committed by foreigners in Korea, compared to 22 percent of the crimes committed by locals. Seoul police said it is looking into measures to deal with this trend, including bolstered patrols in the Itaewon and Guro districts, which have large foreign populations.