By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-08-07 09:16:55 | Updated at 2026-08-07 10:09:04
54 minutes ago
SEOUL – South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung promised on Aug 7 to “fully uncover the truth” about the nation’s dark history of forced overseas adoptions, months after apologising for the state-sanctioned malpractice.
South Korea was once one of the world’s biggest exporters of babies, sending more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999, according to official figures.
International adoptions began after the Korean war, sending away stigmatised mixed-race babies fathered by US soldiers and infants born to women ostracised out of wedlock in a conservative society.
It morphed into big business, generating millions of dollars for adoption agencies in South Korea’s booming 1970s and 1980s.
In 2025, the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said the government was responsible for abuse in the practice by fabricating records and obtaining inadequate consent from birth parents.
The commission recognised state responsibility in just 56 of the 367 overseas adoption cases flagged for investigation, sparking backlash from adult adoptees and a new probe to revisit those cases, which started on July 21.
“We will thoroughly uncover the truth about... cases of forced overseas adoption that were not fully investigated in previous inquiries,” Lee said at an event with probe officials and victims of other state violence.
Advocates for investigations have largely been adopted children, with birth parents reluctant to speak out over the still-stigmatised subject.
But in May, five South Korean birth mothers came forward to demand a state probe, saying that their children were sent for overseas adoption without their consent.
One claimed she was told her daughter had died after birth, only to later learn she was adopted in the United States.
“In some cases, unjust human rights violations occurred during overseas adoption procedures,” Lee said in October.
“At such times, the state did not fully meet its responsibilities. On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I offer my heartfelt apology.”
Korean adoptees have advocated for their rights for years, many reporting that their birth mothers were forced to give them up, saying records were fabricated to meet legal requirements for adoption.
Some parents and adoptees even claimed their children were kidnapped by agents who sought out unattended children in poor neighbourhoods.
Other allegations include the authorities directing lost children towards adoption without trying to reunite them with their families.
Despite South Korea’s notoriously low birth rate, the country continued sending children abroad for adoption until recently.
According to the government data, 24 children were adopted overseas in 2025, 58 in 2024, 79 in 2023, and 142 in 2022. AFP
