On October 2, 2025, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung broke decades of governmental silence by issuing a formal apology for the country’s mishandling of foreign adoption programs—a system that, for generations, sent tens of thousands of children abroad, often under dubious and distressing circumstances. The apology, delivered via a Facebook post, came just one day after South Korea’s belated ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention took effect, marking a pivotal moment in the nation’s reckoning with its past.
"On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I offer my heartfelt apology and words of comfort to overseas adoptees, their families, and their birth families who have endured suffering," President Lee wrote. According to The Associated Press, Lee expressed deep regret over the anxiety, pain, and confusion experienced by adoptees sent abroad as children, acknowledging the government’s failure to protect their rights. "I have a very heavy heart for the anxiety, pain and confusion that Korean adoptees have suffered in faraway lands, when they were too young to even speak their mother tongue," he added, as reported by The Korea Herald.
This apology was not made in a vacuum. It followed the March 2025 publication of a landmark report by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which, after a nearly three-year investigation into complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States, and Australia, concluded that the government bore responsibility for facilitating adoption programs riddled with abuses and fraud. These programs, particularly active from the 1970s through the 1980s, were often driven by governmental efforts to reduce welfare costs and address societal discomfort with mixed-race or illegitimate children in a culture that prized ethnic homogeneity.
The commission’s findings, covered by Al Jazeera and others, painted a grim picture: adoption agencies and officials frequently falsified records to portray children as abandoned orphans, switched identities, and in some cases, removed or even stole children from their birth families. Of the 367 cases reviewed, 56 involved clear failures by adoption agencies, including the fabrication of birth records and the false reporting of missing children as orphans—failings largely attributed to government neglect.
President Lee did not shy away from these revelations. He acknowledged that "the country must have failed to fulfill its responsibilities," and called for the creation of systems to safeguard the human rights of adoptees and support their search for birth parents. "I ask officials to formulate systems to safeguard the human rights of adoptees and support their efforts to find their birth parents," Lee stated, as reported by The Associated Press.
The scale of South Korea’s international adoption program is staggering. As South China Morning Post and The Korea Herald detail, more than 140,000 children were sent overseas for adoption between 1955 and 1999, with the total number since the Korean War’s outbreak in 1950 exceeding 170,000. Even into the 2020s, the practice has persisted, with more than 100 children—often babies born to unmarried women facing social stigma—being sent abroad each year. While some adoptees found loving homes, others endured further trauma due to the negligence and connivance of agencies and officials.
South Korea’s status as one of the world’s largest "exporters" of children for adoption has long been a source of national discomfort and international criticism. The country’s rapid economic rise—now Asia’s fourth-largest economy—contrasts sharply with the legacy of its adoption policies, which were initially established in the aftermath of the 1950-53 Korean War. The programs were originally intended to address the needs of mixed-race children born to local mothers and American GI fathers, but soon expanded to include children from poor or single-parent families, often without adequate oversight or consent.
The March 2025 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report was a watershed moment. It not only confirmed government responsibility for past abuses but also called for an official apology—something previous administrations had largely avoided. In 1998, former president Kim Dae-jung expressed regret to overseas adoptees, saying, "From the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry. I deeply feel that we have committed a grave wrong against you." However, he stopped short of acknowledging direct state responsibility for decades of malpractice, a gap President Lee’s statement now seeks to fill.
The government’s apology was accompanied by concrete policy changes. In July 2025, South Korea ratified the Hague Adoption Convention—an international treaty designed to safeguard the rights and welfare of children in intercountry adoptions and prevent child abduction, sale, or trafficking. The treaty, which took effect in South Korea on October 1, 2025, brings the nation into alignment with more than 100 other countries, including Australia, China, and the United States, that have committed to upholding higher standards in adoption practices.
Alongside the treaty’s implementation, new laws were introduced in July 2025 to strengthen the role of central and local governments in overseeing intercountry adoptions. These include the Special Act on Domestic Adoption and the Act on Intercountry Adoption, which aim to ensure that adoption systems operate in the best interests of children and to prevent abuses that have marred the nation’s past. President Lee pledged to ensure these measures are enforced and called on ministries to coordinate efforts to protect adoptees’ human rights, establish a human rights-based adoption system, and offer support to those wishing to reconnect with their birth families.
The response from adoptees and their advocates has been mixed. While many welcomed the president’s apology and the government’s new commitments, others pointed out that it would take more than words and legislative changes to heal the wounds inflicted by decades of neglect and abuse. The falsification of records, the trauma of forced separation, and the challenges faced by adoptees seeking to trace their origins remain unresolved for many.
Nevertheless, the apology marks a turning point in South Korea’s approach to its adoption legacy. By publicly acknowledging the government’s failures and committing to systemic reform, President Lee has opened the door to greater transparency, accountability, and support for adoptees and their families—both at home and abroad. As the country moves forward under the framework of the Hague Adoption Convention, the hope is that future generations of children will be protected from the injustices of the past, and that those who suffered will find some measure of comfort and recognition.
In the end, the nation’s reckoning with its adoption history is far from over—but for the thousands affected, President Lee’s words represent a long-overdue step toward justice and healing.
