the government said it plans to end its waning foreign adoptions of Korean children, while United Nations investigators voiced “serious concern” over what they described as Seoul’s failure to ensure truth-finding and reparations for widespread human rights violations tied to decades of mass overseas adoptions.
South Korea faces growing pressure to confront widespread fraud and abuse that plagued its adoption programme, particularly during a boom in the 1970s and 1980s when it annually sent thousands of children to the West.
The country will phase out foreign adoptions over a five-year period, aiming to reach zero by 2029 at the latest as it tightens welfare policies for children in need of care, Vice-Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Seu-ran said during a briefing.
South Korea approved foreign adoptions of 24 children in 2025, down from around 2,000 in 2005 and an annual average of more than 6,000 during the 1980s.
“Adoptions were mainly handled by private adoption agencies before, and while they presumably prioritised the best interests of the child, there may have also been other competing interests.
“Now, with the adoption system being restructured into a public framework, and with the Health Ministry and the government having a larger role in the process for approving adoptions, we have an opportunity to reassess whether international adoption is truly a necessary option,” Lee said.
UN investigators raised the adoption issue after months of communication with Kim Yoo-ree.
The 52-year-old was sent to a French family in 1984 without her biological parents’ consent, based on documents falsely describing her as an abandoned orphan.
Kim said she endured severe physical and sexual abuse by her adopters and petitioned the United Nations as part of a broader effort to seek accountability.
Citing broader systemic issues and Kim’s case, UN investigators criticised South Korea for failing to give adoptees effective access to remedies for serious abuses and for the “possible denial of their rights to truth, reparations, and memorialisation”.
In its response, South Korea highlighted past reforms focused on abuse prevention including a 2011 law that reinstated judicial oversight of foreign adoptions, which ended decades of control by private agencies and resulted in a significant drop in international placements.
However, the government said further investigations and stronger reparations for victims would hinge on future legislation.
It offered no new measures to address the vast backlog of inaccurate or falsified records that have blocked many adoptees from reconnecting with birth families or learning the truth about their origins. — AP
