South Korea Confronts Dark Legacy of Adoption Fraud

A South Korean government agency has officially acknowledged widespread adoption malpractice, including falsified documents, as a dark chapter in the nation’s history. The commission's recommendation for a state apology highlights the urgent need for accountability regarding the country's practices.

On March 26, 2025, in a historic admission, South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission disclosed that its adoption agencies engaged in extensive malpractices over the decades, prioritizing profit over the well-being of children. The commission's report indicated that children were dispatched abroad “like luggage,” with the intent to boost the adoption agencies’ financial interests.

These revelations were a significant win for South Korean adoptees, many of whom have been actively raising awareness of the injustices tied to their adoptions. Reports revealed that adoption agencies often falsified documents, presenting children as orphans despite the existence of biological parents. Furthermore, in some cases, when infants died before their scheduled flights abroad, other children were sent in their place, posing as the deceased.

Critics pointed to the unchecked power of four leading private adoption agencies, that assumed the role of legal guardians, subsequently signing children away for international adoption. This report marks the first formal acknowledgment by the South Korean government regarding adoption practices, highlighting a systemic lack of oversight that had previously gone unchallenged.

The commission has called for the state to issue an apology for the violations faced by South Korean adoptees—an effort to confront the legacy of becoming the world’s largest exporter of intercountry adoptees, which saw approximately 200,000 South Korean children placed abroad, predominantly in the United States and Europe, since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

In the context of South Korea's impoverished postwar years, the government opted to encourage overseas adoptions rather than establishing a welfare system to support its children at home. As a result, adoption agencies were tasked with finding and facilitating international placements, often at the cost of children’s rights and identities.