BY KIM CHANG-YONG 

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Overseas adoptees submit a petition to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in central Seoul seeking an investigation into forced overseas adoption of mixed-race children and abuse at child care facilities on March 30. [NEWS1]

Korean adoptees who were sent abroad between the 1970s and 1990s filed a new round of investigation requests with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday, marking the 21st Adoption Day with calls for the country to confront alleged abuses in its overseas adoption program and to punish those responsible.
 
KoRoot, a Seoul-based support group for overseas Korean adoptees, said 80 adoptees and family members submitted applications to the commission on Monday. The filings bring the number of overseas adoptees still awaiting a conclusion from the commission to 391.

The second iteration of the commission, which ran from 2020 to 2025, formally recognized irregularities in overseas adoptions as human rights violations and acknowledged the state’s responsibility.
 
But of the 367 investigation requests it received, the second commission ruled on just 56 cases over two years and seven months. Adoptees whose cases were not accepted, many of them on the grounds that the records were insufficient, pushed back at the time, arguing that “the absence of records is itself a massive human rights violation.”

Hopes now rest with the third commission, which has announced plans to launch a dedicated investigation bureau to handle overseas adoption cases. The third commission began in February of this year. 

A photo of an adoptee sent to Denmark so her prospective adoptive parents could consider the adoption, left, and a photo of Marianne taken at Ppuri Park in Jung District, Daejeon, in June 2024. [JOONGANG ILBO]
Fifty-three-year-old Marianne, a Korean adoptee in Denmark whose Korean name is Lee Hyeon-hwa, is one of those watching the new commission closely. She filed an investigation request during the second commission’s tenure, but said she was never once interviewed. 

The adoption documents she received from a Korean social-welfare corporation stated that she had been “found alone on the street, transferred to a facility and then adopted.” 

She had believed that account her whole life — until she recently met her biological mother through a private DNA-matching service and heard a very different story.

Marianne’s family told her that a doctor had recommended a brief separation due to her skin condition, so they placed her in a facility for a short time. 

“When we went back to bring her home about four months later, she was already gone,” they said. “We filed a missing-person report, registered our DNA with police and have been searching ever since, but we never found her.”

“My mother did nothing wrong, yet she has carried that guilt for more than 50 years,” Marianne said. “I want the commission to deliver a clear conclusion, and I also hope it can find a way for overseas adoptees to reconnect with Korea.”

A memorandum transferring guardianship [JOONGANG ILBO]
Frustration with slow investigations has pushed some adoptees to pursue legal action on their own.

Thomas, a Korean adoptee in Denmark with the Korean name Kim Bo-bae, filed a criminal complaint last year against the facility that arranged his adoption and an orphanage in Busan. According to his medical records, Thomas was born at an obstetrics clinic in Jungnang District, eastern Seoul, and was transferred to a hospital managed by an adoption agency after his parents relinquished their parental rights, before being placed at the facility. The adoption documents his Danish parents received, however, said he had been transferred from an orphanage in Busan. The case is being investigated by the Jongno Police Precinct.

“I’ve requested criminal punishment for the individuals, officials and facilities that falsified documents during the adoption process,” Thomas said. “Civil compensation is one option, but I felt that holding those responsible accountable through criminal punishment was a better direction for other overseas adoptees as well.”

He added, “I hope the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigation will allow me to learn the details of what happened.”

Overseas adoptees say the third commission, which dedicates an investigation bureau to cover overseas adoptions and cases involving mass-confinement facilities, represents a chance to overcome the limitations of the previous one.

“The announcement of Investigation Bureau 3 has raised public interest in the issue of overseas adoption,” said Han Boon-young, head of the Danish Korean Rights Group. “Unlike the second commission, which could only request cooperation from facilities, the third commission has real authority, including the power to issue corrective recommendations. The number of applicants is rising, and adoptees are hopeful.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.