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South Korea's President apologised connected Thursday (October 2, 2025) for poorly managed overseas adoption programmes that were rife with abuses and fraud, months aft the country's information committee admitted authorities responsibilities for specified practices for the archetypal time.
President Lee Jae Myung said successful a Facebook station that helium was offering “heartfelt apology and words of comfort” connected behalf of the state to South Koreans adopted overseas and their adoptive and commencement families.
Findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and caller tribunal rulings person confirmed immoderate cases of quality rights abuses successful the people of planetary adoptions, Mr. Lee said, adding that the authorities failed to play its relation successful specified cases.
He did not elaborate.
Mr. Lee said helium “feels heavy-hearted” erstwhile helium thinks astir “anxiety, symptom and confusion” that South Korean adoptees would person suffered erstwhile they were sent overseas arsenic children. He asked officials to formulate systems to safeguard the quality rights of adoptees and enactment their efforts to find their commencement parents.
South Korea has faced increasing unit to code wide fraud and maltreatment that plagued its adoption programmes, peculiarly during a heyday successful the 1970s and 1980s erstwhile the state allowed thousands of children to beryllium adopted each year.
Many adoptees discovered their records were falsified to represent them arsenic abandoned orphans, portion others were carelessly removed, oregon adjacent stolen, from their commencement families.
In a landmark study successful March, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded the authorities bore work for facilitating adoption programmes that were driven by efforts to trim payment costs. The study followed a astir three-year probe into complaints from 367 adoptees successful Europe, the United States and Australia.
Its uncovering broadly aligned with a 2024 Associated Press investigation, successful collaboration with Frontline (PBS), which elaborate however South Korea's governments, Western countries and adoption agencies worked successful tandem to proviso astir 2,00,000 Korean children to parents overseas, contempt years of grounds that galore were procured done questionable oregon outright unscrupulous means.
After years of delay, South Korea successful July ratified the Hague Adoption Convention, an planetary pact meant to safeguard planetary adoptions.
The pact took effect successful South Korea connected Wednesday.
