The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Revised Japanese textbooks distort wartime forced labor, catching Korea off guard

  • 3

    Actor Yoo Ah-in once again apologizes for alleged drug use

  • 5

    Korea to ease entry rules to boost tourism, domestic spending

  • 7

    Gold price nears all-time high amid financial jitters

  • 9

    Ramsar wetland in Han River cleaned up for protected birdlife

  • 11

    Civic groups in Gwangju await meeting with Chun Doo-hwan's grandson

  • 13

    BTS' Jimin tops Spotify's global chart with 'Like Crazy'

  • 15

    Over 1,000 financially vulnerable Koreans apply for new emergency gov't loans

  • 17

    Suspect identified in Nashville school shooting that killed 3 children, 3 staff

  • 19

    Ra Mi-ran, Lee Re to lead fantasy drama 'The Mysterious Candy Store'

  • 2

    Chun Doo-hwan's grandson apprehended at Incheon Int'l Airport over drug use

  • 4

    Clock ticks for China's massive repatriation of N. Korean defectors

  • 6

    'My ID is Gangnam Beauty' to be adapted into live action series in Thailand

  • 8

    BMW launches new XM

  • 10

    North Korea unveils tactical nuclear warheads

  • 12

    CJ CheilJedang sees chicken as next big seller after frozen dumpling

  • 14

    From IVE to NCT DOJAEJUNG, K-pop hotshots brace for April chart race

  • 16

    2024 budget to focus on tackling low birthrate

  • 18

    INTERVIEWChoi Min-sik, Lee Dong-hwi on creating Korean-style noir with 'Big Bet'

  • 20

    Samsung Pay partners with Hana Financial to issue student IDs

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
Thu, March 30, 2023 | 13:39
Korea Urged to Write New Chapter for Adoption
Posted : 2008-08-27 18:04
Updated : 2008-08-27 18:04
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

Two adopted babies play during a gathering organized by a welfare body to celebrate Adoption Day on May 11 in Seoul. / Korea Times File Photo

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

Dozens of Korean adoptees joined forces last Thursday to ask the South Korean government to address the problems of overseas adoption.

They formed an organization as a first step to call for a transparent inquiry and a full understanding of the adoption issue, both past and present in Korea, which has been dubbed as a ``country exporting babies.'' Since the 1950s, the country has sent more than 150,000 children to live with Western families.

``It is an attempt to help adoptees and Korean society understand each other,'' said Han Boon-young, chief executive general of Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK). ``It is also for healing relations between adoptees and Korean society.''

TRACK aims to comprehensively address the issue of international adoption at a national level and reveal the problems in the adoption program so that the rights of Korean children and families will be better preserved in the future, she said.

``Such efforts will also rectify and reconcile the past to create a bright collective future for adoptees overseas,'' she said.

Exporting babies

As of 2006, 227,983 Korean babies have been adopted. Among them, 159,044, or 69.8 percent, had new families in foreign countries, while Korean families here have adopted 68,939 children.

TRACK claims adoptees overseas might be as high as 200,000, considering those who have been adopted privately and have not been recorded in government statistics.

Consequently, the massive number has often drawn criticism that the country has ``exported'' babies to Western countries. Adoption agencies can earn up to 20 million won arrangement fees when they find a child a new home overseas while domestic adoption earns them less than 2 million won.

Many civic groups also claim that a large number of babies were sent overseas for adoption without their mothers' consent and some child placement agencies in the past used fraudulent documents in order to get children adopted there.

Adoptee Solidarity Korea (ASK) is an organization campaigning for an end to adoption overseas.

``We're not trying to stop inter-country adoption right now,'' Jenny Na, a member of ASK said. ``At the moment, there are no programs for single mothers or underprivileged families. But we want to offer them an option for them to keep their kids.''

Given the economic status of Korea, it should make an effort to create a proper social welfare system to take care of its children, not to simply send them to overseas families, she said. ``People should also know adoption is an issue of human rights.''

Reacting to the mounting criticism, the government has already promised to end international adoptions from Korea in the next three to four years.

The government has also offered various incentives to encourage domestic adoption.

From last year, single people were able to adopt children as the number of single person households has steadily increased, accounting for 16 percent of the total as of 2007.

The age of adoptive parents has been also raised to 60 from 50 in the past.

Dilemmas in international adoption

The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs last year proudly announced that more adopted children were placed in Korea than overseas.

The ministry reported families living in Korea adopted 724 children in the first half of last year, 59 percent of the total 1,223. During the previous five years, the domestic adoption rate was less than 40 percent.

But adoption agencies say the policies have ignored reality in focusing on increasing the rate of domestic adoptions.

``Our priority is to find babies new homes at very early ages,'' said an official from one of the four major inter-country adoption agencies. ``We try hard, but it is almost impossible to find them new homes domestically.''

The official said that most Korean families are reluctant to embrace male babies and babies with disabilities, and so overseas adoptions are the last option for them before they are sent to an orphanage.

She criticized that the increase in domestic adoption was only possible because of a new law that gave Korean parents priority for the first five months after children were put up for adoption. No international adoption was allowed in that period.

``We agree with the necessity of domestic adoption and various incentive programs. But who should be first considered in the adoption? Isn't it the baby? All the policies only aim at deregulating procedures in adoption but what if disqualified parents adopt a baby?'' she said.

Journey to find their roots

The issue of adoption has recently drawn people's attention but little of that has been given to Korea adoptees sent to other countries. Some have made a lonely journey by themselves to discover the ``missing part'' of their life.

``It's like a mystery,'' said Sara Schultzer, 28, who was adopted by a family from the United States. ``You don't really know anything about Korea and its culture and your parents also don't know much.''

She joined a Korean culture camp for adoptees in America but it was only a taste of Korean culture and didn't satisfy her. But it was not easy for her to come to Korea alone and experience what the country is like.

But she was finally able to visit Korea and experience Korean culture, thanks to a ``Welcome Home'' program by the Korean adoption agency Social Welfare Society (SWS).

``I had a wonderful time here. It was more tangible experience, allowing me to understand Korea better,'' she recalled. ``I know the selection and funding is difficult but I wish more adoptees could have more chances like this.''

Not only to find a home for babies but to offer adoptees chances to learn about Korea are important, she said.

e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr

 
Top 10 Stories
1Korea to ease entry rules to boost tourism, domestic spending Korea to ease entry rules to boost tourism, domestic spending
2Korea moves to shorten COVID-19 isolation period to 5 days Korea moves to shorten COVID-19 isolation period to 5 days
3[INTERVIEW] Can art become stable investment source? INTERVIEWCan art become stable investment source?
4Will dismantling oligopoly result in successful bank industry reform? Will dismantling oligopoly result in successful bank industry reform?
5Generation Z entrepreneurs turn oyster shells into trendy dish soapGeneration Z entrepreneurs turn oyster shells into trendy dish soap
6Fintech, lifestyle products can help Korea grow trade ties with Hong Kong: city's trade promotion chief in Korea Fintech, lifestyle products can help Korea grow trade ties with Hong Kong: city's trade promotion chief in Korea
7Celltrion chairman vows to develop new drugs, initiate M&As Celltrion chairman vows to develop new drugs, initiate M&As
8Terraform Labs co-founder's extradition could be delayed more than 1 month Terraform Labs co-founder's extradition could be delayed more than 1 month
9Ex-journalist to lead NK defector support foundation Ex-journalist to lead NK defector support foundation
10Top envoy to US tapped as new national security advisorTop envoy to US tapped as new national security advisor
Top 5 Entertainment News
1'My ID is Gangnam Beauty' to be adapted into live action series in Thailand 'My ID is Gangnam Beauty' to be adapted into live action series in Thailand
2From IVE to NCT DOJAEJUNG, K-pop hotshots brace for April chart race From IVE to NCT DOJAEJUNG, K-pop hotshots brace for April chart race
3[INTERVIEW] Choi Min-sik, Lee Dong-hwi on creating Korean-style noir with 'Big Bet' INTERVIEWChoi Min-sik, Lee Dong-hwi on creating Korean-style noir with 'Big Bet'
4Ra Mi-ran, Lee Re to lead fantasy drama 'The Mysterious Candy Store' Ra Mi-ran, Lee Re to lead fantasy drama 'The Mysterious Candy Store'
5[INTERVIEW] Ahn Jae-hong on playing underdog basketball coach in 'Rebound' INTERVIEWAhn Jae-hong on playing underdog basketball coach in 'Rebound'
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group