South Korean government blamed for human rights abuses in overseas adoptions
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Wednesday found that past Korean governments were responsible for human rights violations in overseas adoptions from the 1960s to the 1990s, pointing to falsified records and inadequate supervision. This marks the first official acknowledgment by the Korean government of the irregularities in the nation’s previous overseas adoption system — issues that hundreds of adoptees have been raising in recent years. Following a yearslong probe, the TRC concluded that legislative gaps, inadequate government oversight and administrative failures led to widespread misconduct. "For nearly 50 years following the Korean War, the government prioritized intercountry adoption as a cost-effective alternative to strengthening domestic child welfare policies. By giving full authority over adoption procedures to private agencies without proper oversight, the government failed in its duty to protect children’s rights," the commission said in the report. "The lack of oversight made it difficult to regulate misconduct by adoption agencies, ultimately resulti
