Seoul ends troubled private adoption as ministry takes full control

Adoption reform: A file photo showing social workers caring for babies at a community church in southern Seoul. — AFP

THE nation is set to overhaul its adoption system by ending the decades-old practice of outsourcing adoptions to private agencies, which has led to widespread allegations of abuse.

South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse, sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999.