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South Korea has announced plans to halt the declining number of overseas adoptions of Korean children, a move that followed “serious concerns” expressed by UN investigators.
The UN has criticized Seoul’s alleged failure to ensure truth-finding and reparations. massive human rights violations has been linked to large-scale foreign adoption for decades.
The government’s announcement on Friday came just hours after South Korea’s response to investigators by the UN human rights office was released.
These investigators had urged Seoul to outline concrete plans to address the complaints of adoptees sent abroad. Records of many people are fake or who suffered abuse from a foreign parent.
Although the issue is rarely discussed at the UN level, South Korea has faced increasing pressure to combat the widespread fraud and abuse that has plagued its adoption program. This was especially prevalent during the boom in the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of children were deported to Western countries annually.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Li Seuran said during a briefing that the country will phase out foreign adoptions over a five-year period, aiming to reach zero by 2029 at the latest.
This change will be accompanied by a tightening of welfare policies for children in need of care.
South Korea approved 24 children for foreign adoption in 2025, down from about 2,000 in 2005 and an annual average of more than 6,000 during the 1980s.
In the Health Ministry’s briefing and response to the United Nations, officials focused on future improvements rather than past problems.
“Adoptions were previously handled primarily by private adoption agencies, and while they probably prioritized the best interests of the child, there may be other competing interests,” Ms Lee said.
Citing efforts to promote domestic adoption, he said, “Now, the adoption system is being reorganized into a public framework, and with the health ministry and the government having a larger role in the adoption approval process, we have the opportunity to reassess whether international adoption is really a necessary option.”
UN investigators, including the Special Rapporteur on trafficking, forced or involuntary disappearances and child abuse, raised the adoption issue with Seoul after months of communication. Yuri KimThe 52-year-old woman was sent to a French family in 1984 without her biological parents’ consent, based on documents falsely describing her as an abandoned orphan,
Ms. Kim said she suffered severe physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her adopters and filed a petition at the United Nations as part of a broader effort to demand accountability from the governments and adoption agencies in South Korea and France.
Citing broader systemic issues and Ms Kim’s case, UN investigators criticized South Korea for failing to give adoptees effective access to treatments for severe abuse and “potential denial of their rights to truth, reparations and memorialisation”.
They also expressed concern over the suspension of government fact-finding investigations into past adoption abuses and fraud, despite reports of serious violations, which may have included cases of forced disappearance.
In its response, South Korea highlighted past reforms focused on preventing abuse, including a 2011 law that restored judicial oversight of foreign adoptions, which ended decades of control by private agencies and resulted in a significant decline in international placements.
South Korea also cited recent steps to centralize adoption rights.
However, the government said that further investigation into adoptions and stronger compensation for victims would depend on future legislation. It has introduced no new measures to address the vast backlog of inaccurate or false records that have prevented many adoptees from reconnecting with birth families or learning the truth about their origins.
Choi Jung Kyu, a human rights lawyer representing Ms Kim, called South Korea’s response “successful”. He said promises of stronger compensation, which were meant to reduce the need for litigation for victims, are not clearly spelled out in the draft bills proposing to relaunch the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses.
The government also vetoed a bill in April that would have removed the statute of limitations for state-related human rights violations, although this was before President Lee Jae Myung took office in June. Ms Lee issued an apology in October over past adoption problems, as recommended by the truth commission.
Mr. Choi, who represents many of the plaintiffs suing the government over human rights abuses under the previous dictatorship, said they often face lengthy legal battles when officials dismiss truth commission findings as inconclusive or cite expired statutes of limitations.
Ms. Kim, who could not immediately be reached for comment, filed a rare petition for compensation against the South Korean government in August, saying authorities wrongly registered her as an orphan despite having a family at the time of her adoption.
After a nearly three-year investigation into complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia, the Truth Commission in March recognized Ms. Kim and 55 other adoptees as victims of human rights violations including falsified child provenance, lost records and child protection failures.
That was a few weeks before the Commission halted its adoption investigation following internal disputes among commissioners over matters that were recognized as problematic. The fate of the remaining 311 cases, either postponed or incompletely reviewed, depends on whether lawmakers establish a new truth commission through legislation.
The Commission’s findings acknowledged the state’s responsibility for facilitating a foreign adoption program fraught with fraud and abuse. The program was motivated by efforts to reduce welfare costs and was enabled by private agencies that often manipulated children’s backgrounds and origins. The findings largely match previous reporting by the Associated Press.
AP Investigation, in collaboration with borderline (PBS) detailed how the South Korean government, Western countries, and adoption agencies worked together to send approximately 200,000 Korean children abroad, despite evidence that many were purchased through questionable or unscrupulous means.
Previous military governments in Seoul passed special laws to promote foreign adoptions, removing judicial oversight and giving vast powers to private agencies that bypassed proper child abandonment procedures while sending thousands of children abroad each year.
Western countries largely ignored the abuses and sometimes pressured South Korea to maintain supply to meet their high demand for children.