South Korea's Lee apologizes over foreign adoption scandal DW 10/02/2025

"For years the widespread fraud and abuse that haunted its adoption programs had been under scrutiny, particularly in regards to adoptions during the 1970s and 1980s, when South Korea allowed thousands of children to be adopted every year. Many adoptees had discovered their records were falsified to portray them as abandoned orphans, with many removed or stolen from their birth families."

"The truth commission found that the programs had seen perpepual fraud and abuses, with court rulings confirming that some human rights abuses had been committed too. In a Facebook post, President Lee said offered his "heartfelt apology and words of comfort" on behalf of the country to both South Koreans adopted abroad and their adoptive and birth families. He went on to add that the government had failed to play its role in preventing the abuses from having taken place."

"A landmark report in March by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that it was the government who bore responsibility for allowing the adoption programs as a way to reduce welfare costs. The report was written after an almost three-year investigation into complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia. That report called on the South Korean government to put an official apology over the adoptions."

South Korea's foreign adoption programs experienced widespread fraud, falsified records, and human rights abuses, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the government enabled the programs to reduce welfare costs and bore responsibility after an almost three-year investigation into complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia. Courts confirmed some abuses had occurred. President Lee Jae Myung issued a public apology on Facebook, expressing heartfelt apology and comfort to adoptees and their birth and adoptive families, and acknowledged government failure to prevent the abuses. South Korea ratified the Hague Adoption Convention, which recently took effect.

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