South Korea vows truth on forced overseas adoptions

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung promised on Friday to “fully uncover the truth” about forced overseas adoptions, months after apologising for what was described as state-sanctioned malpractice.

Official figures say South Korea sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999. International adoptions began after the Korean War and later grew through adoption agencies during the 1970s and 1980s.

South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said last year that the government was responsible for abuse in the practice, including fabricated records and inadequate consent from birth parents. The commission recognised state responsibility in 56 of 367 overseas adoption cases flagged for investigation, prompting backlash from adult adoptees and a new probe that began on July 21.

Lee said cases that were not fully investigated in previous inquiries would be examined. He spoke at an event with probe officials and victims of other state violence.

In May, five South Korean birth mothers called for a state investigation, saying their children had been sent abroad for adoption without their consent. One said she had been told her daughter died after birth, but later learned she had been adopted in the United States.

Lee apologised in October, saying that “unjust human rights violations” occurred in some overseas adoption procedures and that the state had not fully met its responsibilities.

Korean adoptees have campaigned for years over adoption records and consent. Some have said birth mothers were forced to give up children, records were fabricated to meet adoption requirements, children were taken by agents in poor neighbourhoods, or lost children were directed toward adoption without attempts to reunite them with families.

Government data cited in the story said 24 children were adopted overseas in 2025, down from 58 in 2024, 79 in 2023 and 142 in 2022.