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\n ALL APOLOGIES South Korea\u2019s President Lee Jae Myung (center) speaks during a luncheon meeting to comfort victims of state violence at the presidential office in the capital Seoul on Aug. 7, 2026. YONHAP PHOTO VIA EPA\n <\/p>\n
International adoptions began after the Korean War, sending away stigmatized mixed-race babies fathered by United States soldiers and infants born to women ostracized out of wedlock in a conservative society.<\/p>\n
It morphed into big business, generating millions of dollars for adoption agencies in South Korea\u2019s booming 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year, the country\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said the government was responsible for abuse in the practice by fabricating records and obtaining inadequate consent from birth parents.<\/p>\n The commission recognized 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will thoroughly uncover the truth about … cases of forced overseas adoption that were not fully investigated in previous inquiries,\u201d Lee said at an event with probe officials and victims of other state violence.<\/p>\n Advocates for investigations have largely been adopted children, with birth parents reluctant to speak out over the still-stigmatized subject.<\/p>\n But in May, five South Korean birth mothers came forward to demand a state probe, saying their children were sent for overseas adoption without their consent.<\/p>\n One claimed she was told her daughter had died after birth, only to later learn she was adopted in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some cases, unjust human rights violations occurred during overseas adoption procedures,\u201d Lee said in October.<\/p>\n \u201cAt such times, the state did not fully meet its responsibilities. On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I offer my heartfelt apology,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Some parents and adoptees even claimed their children were kidnapped by agents who sought out unattended children in poor neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Other allegations include authorities directing lost children towards adoption without trying to reunite them with their families.<\/p>\n Despite South Korea\u2019s notoriously low birth rate, the country continued sending children abroad for adoption until recently.<\/p>\n According to the government data, 24 children were adopted overseas in 2025, 58 in 2024, 79 in 2023, and 142 in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL \u2014 South Korea\u2019s President Lee Jae Myung promised on Friday to \u201cfully uncover the truth\u201d about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[57720,57724,57726,6874,57723,4375,57715,57717,57727,57721,6872,57714,4942,57722,57718,39507,57728,31,4924,146,35363,57719,57730,57729,2322,20426,33,35375,57725,57716,6871],"class_list":["post-112334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-adoption-agencies","tag-adult-adoptees","tag-apologizing","tag-birth-mothers","tag-birth-parents","tag-boom","tag-dark-history","tag-exporters-of-babies","tag-fabricated-records","tag-fabrication-of-records","tag-forced-adoption","tag-forced-overseas-adoptions","tag-human-rights-violations","tag-inadequate-consent","tag-international-adoptions","tag-investigations","tag-kidnapped-children","tag-korea","tag-korean-war","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-low-birth-rate","tag-mixed-race-babies","tag-overseas-adoption","tag-poor-neighborhoods","tag-president-lee-jae-myung","tag-probe","tag-south-korea","tag-state-responsibility","tag-state-violence","tag-state-sanctioned-malpractice","tag-truth-and-reconciliation-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}