Thu Mar 27 05:58:12 UTC 2025: ## South Korea’s Truth Commission Blasts Government Role in Abusive Adoption Program
**SEOUL, South Korea —** A landmark report released by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has condemned the government’s role in facilitating a massive foreign adoption program riddled with fraud and abuse. The report, concluding a nearly three-year investigation into 367 complaints from adoptees across Europe, the U.S., and Australia, found that the government bears responsibility for a system that prioritized cost reduction over child welfare.
The TRC confirmed human rights violations in 56 cases, with investigations into the remaining complaints ongoing. However, the report’s cautiously worded findings have drawn criticism from some adoptees and even a commission investigator, Sang Hoon Lee, who cited limitations in the investigation’s scope. Lee expressed regret over the commission’s decision to defer assessments on 42 cases due to insufficient documentation, arguing this reflected a lack of understanding of the systemic problems.
The report details how South Korea’s military governments, through policies promoting adoption, allowed private agencies to operate with minimal oversight. These agencies engaged in practices including falsifying children’s backgrounds, bypassing parental consent, and charging exorbitant fees from foreign adopters. The government, the TRC concluded, saw foreign adoptions as a cheaper alternative to strengthening its social welfare system.
The commission’s findings largely corroborate previous investigations by the Associated Press and PBS’s Frontline, which documented the role of the South Korean government, Western countries, and adoption agencies in facilitating the adoption of approximately 200,000 Korean children overseas.
The TRC recommended that the government issue a formal apology, develop plans to address adoptees’ grievances, investigate citizenship issues for adoptees in the U.S., and provide assistance to those lacking citizenship. Adoptee Yooree Kim, who was adopted to France without her parents’ consent, urged the commission to strengthen its recommendations and called for compensation from the government and adoption agencies.
While South Korea’s government has yet to formally respond to the report, it stated it would “actively review” its recommendations and highlighted ongoing efforts to improve the adoption system through a new law taking effect in July. The number of South Korean children placed abroad has significantly decreased in recent years due to reforms, with only 79 cases in 2023.
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