Korea Admits to “Mass Export” of Children for Adoption; At Least 170,000 Children Sent Abroad
Recently, after a two-year investigation, the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a groundbreaking report, exposing the Korean government’s decades-long complicity in the systematic trafficking of children by private agencies under the guise of international adoption.
Park Sun-young, the chairperson of the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission (left), comforting an emotional adoptee at a press conference
The investigation reveals that between the 1960s and 1990s, at least 170,000 Korean children were sent to Western countries, with the operation riddled with scandals such as forged documents, illegal fees, and identity alterations. The report points out that under the shelter of special legislation, more than 300 private adoption agencies turned child trafficking into a “lucrative industry.” These agencies “produced” children for adoption on demand each month, using methods like forging “abandonment certificates” and creating false identities to evade regulations, and even demanding high “donation fees” from adoptive families. Due to widespread document forgery, many adoptees now face the dilemma of being unable to trace their birth families.
“This is essentially child trafficking sanctioned by the government,” said Commission Chairperson Park Sun-young at the press conference.
The survey shows that 52% of adoption files had forged birth certificates, and 34% of cases involved birth mothers being coerced into signing documents. In 1968, one agency even altered the identity of a 3-year-old child to a “17-year-old orphan” to circumvent adoption age restrictions.
The trauma caused by this system continues. Kim Mi-sun, now 48, told the media that her Dutch adoptive parents “treated me worse than a dog.”
The investigation confirmed 56 cases of rights violations, including adoptees suffering from domestic violence, forced labor, and sexual abuse.
The report recommends that the Korean government must formally apologize for this “institutionalized crime history” and establish a mechanism for tracing international adoptions.