Adoptees urge South Korea to open records and help find birth families

People who were adopted from South Korea and now live in Western countries gathered in Seoul on Friday to demand change. They protested outside the country's presidential office, asking the government to give them full access to their adoption records. They also want stronger programs to help them find the biological families they were separated from, sometimes before they could even walk or talk.

Nine adoptee groups from Europe and the United States joined together with human rights groups in South Korea to sign a shared statement. The statement asked the South Korean government to expand DNA testing and matching programs. It also asked officials to open up more government records so adoptees have a better chance of tracking down their birth families. The groups said these changes are long overdue.

The protesters also called for investigations into how adoption records were changed or falsified over the years. In many cases, children were wrongly listed as abandoned — even when they had living relatives. The groups want the government to find those responsible and to create clear ways for adoptees and their families to receive some form of repair for the harm done to them.

South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission finished a major investigation in 2025. It found that the government played a role in running an adoption program that was full of fraud and abuse. Officials had pushed adoptions partly to cut welfare costs. President Lee Jae Myung later apologized to adoptees, saying he felt 'heavy-hearted' about their suffering and promising that officials would do more to help.

Despite the apology, many adoptees say nothing has really changed. Protesters on Friday said that more than a year had passed without meaningful action. 'Truth-findings, remedies, and the restoration of rights can no longer be delayed,' the groups said in their statement. Many of the adoptees are now in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and they fear their birth parents may already be gone.

Kee Soon Jager was adopted to Germany in 1976 when she was just four years old. She has been searching for her biological parents since 1991 — more than 30 years. She said the government needs to act fast. 'They should do something to help us to find our families because time is running out and our parents (may have) passed away,' she said.

Angelika Lindgren was adopted to Sweden in 1974. Her papers said she was an abandoned child found on the streets, but she isn't sure that story is true. She called for a larger DNA database to help adoptees find their families, since many adoption documents cannot be trusted. 'I understand it's difficult for mothers and fathers who gave up their children and I know it wasn't always their choice,' she said.

During the 1970s and 1980s, South Korea sent tens of thousands of children abroad for adoption. Many of these children were falsely listed as abandoned in their records, making them eligible under Western laws to be adopted, even though most actually had known relatives. Private adoption agencies paid hospitals and orphanages for children, and in some cases even switched children's identities when something went wrong.

Western countries played a role in the problem too. Governments in Europe and North America were eager to find children for families that wanted to adopt, and they often ignored signs of fraud. South Korea has made some changes in recent years, including planning to end foreign adoptions by 2029, but officials still have no clear plan for dealing with the many falsified records from the past.

The numbers tell a difficult story. Between 2021 and September 2025, adoptees submitted 11,300 requests to search for their birth families, but only 622 of those searches ended in a reunion. In more than 4,600 cases, officials could not even find the birth parents or figure out if they wanted to be contacted. Some lawmakers want to make it easier for adoptees to get information about their birth parents, but some health officials worry this could violate privacy rights.