A South Korean truth commission has uncovered evidence of mothers being coerced into giving up their days-old infants for foreign adoptions at government-funded facilities between the 1960s and 1980s. Established in December 2020, the commission continues to investigate human rights violations from South Korea’s authoritarian era.
According to the findings, approximately 200,000 South Koreans were adopted overseas in the last six decades, creating what is believed to be the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees. They were placed with families in the United States, Denmark, Norway, and Australia.
The commission is examining 367 cases of Korean adoptees in Europe, the United States, and Australia, who suspect their biological origins were manipulated.
Records from 1985 and 1986 alone show at least 20 adoptions from these facilities, coinciding with the peak of South Korea’s foreign adoption program, which saw more than 17,500 children sent abroad during the same period.
The investigation also exposed inhumane conditions in these government-funded facilities, where thousands endured enslavement, abuse, and even death.
South Korea’s efforts to confront its authoritarian past reveal a nation grappling with historical injustices while continuing to grow as a democratic and rights-respecting society.
