Lawsuit over false adoption
A 72-year-old mother has filed a lawsuit against South Korea's government and its largest adoption agency, alleging systematic failures in her forced separation from her toddler son who was sent to Norway without her consent.
Choi Young-ja searched desperately for her son for nearly five decades before their emotional reunion in 2023.
The damage claim by Choi comes as South Korea faces growing pressure to address the extensive fraud and abuse that tainted its historic foreign adoption programme.
In a landmark report in March, South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the government bears responsibility for facilitating an aggressive and loosely regulated foreign adoption programme that carelessly or unnecessarily separated thousands of children from their families for multiple generations.
It found that the country's past military governments were driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs and empowered private agencies to speed up adoptions while turning a blind eye to widespread practices that often manipulated children's backgrounds and origins, leading to an explosion in adoptions that peaked in the 1970s and 1980s.
Children who had living parents, including those who were simply missing or kidnapped, were often falsely documented as abandoned orphans to increase their chances of being adopted in Western countries, which have taken in around 200,000 Korean children over the past seven decades.
Choi's lawsuit follows a similar case filed in October by another woman in her 70s, Han Tae-soon, who also sued the government and Holt Children's Services over the adoption of her daughter who was sent to the United States in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at the age of four.
Choi says her son, who was three years old at the time, ran out of their home in Seoul in July 1975 to chase a cloud of insecticide sprayed by a fumigation truck while playing with friends – and never came back.
She and her late husband spent years searching for him, scouring police stations in and around Seoul, and regularly bringing posters with his name and photo to Holt, South Korea's largest adoption agency. They were repeatedly told there was no information.
After decades of searching in vain, Choi made a final effort by submitting her DNA to a police unit that helps reunite adoptees with birth families.
In 2023, she discovered through 325Kamra, a volunteer group helping adoptees find birth families using DNA, that her son had been adopted to Norway in December 1975, only five months after he went missing. The adoption had been handled by Holt, the very agency she had visited countless times, under a different name and photograph.
Emotional moment: Kim sitting for a portrait as tears start welling up in her eyes in her Seoul apartment in this file photo from May 19, 2024.— AP
Enraged, Choi confronted Holt and has since worked with lawyers to prepare a lawsuit against the agency, the South Korean government and an orphanage in the city of Suwon where her son stayed before being transferred to Holt. Her now 52-year-old son, who travelled to South Korea in 2023 to meet her, has declined to comment on the story.
The 550 million won (RM1.69mil) civil suit recently filed with the Seoul Central District Court alleges that the government had failed in its legal duty to identify Choi's son after he arrived at an orphanage – despite her immediate police report – and to verify his guardianship as he was processed through a state-controlled foreign adoption system.
The orphanage and Holt failed to verify the child's status or notify his parents, even though Choi's son was old enough to speak and showed obvious signs of having a family. In particular, Holt falsified records to describe him as an abandoned orphan – even though Choi had visited the agency looking for him while he was in its custody, before the flight to Norway, according to Jeon Min-kyeong, one of Choi's lawyers.
South Korea's Justice Ministry, which represents the government in lawsuits, said it cannot comment on an ongoing case.
Park comforting Kim during a press conference in Seoul, in this file photo from March 26, 2025. — AP
Choi and Han are the first known birth parents to sue the South Korean government and an adoption agency over the allegedly illegal adoptions of their children.
In 2019, Adam Crapser became the first Korean adoptee to sue the Korean government and an adoption agency – Holt – accusing them of mishandling his adoption to the United States, where he endured an abusive childhood, faced legal troubles and was eventually deported in 2016.
But the Seoul High Court in January cleared both the government and Holt of all liability, overturning a lower court ruling that had ordered the agency to pay damages for failing to inform his adoptive parents of the need to take additional steps to secure his US citizenship.
The truth commission's findings, released in March, could possibly inspire more adoptees or birth parents to seek damages against the government and adoption agencies.
However, some adoptees criticised the cautiously worded report, arguing that it should have more forcefully acknowledged the government's complicity and offered more concrete recommendations for reparations for victims of illegal adoption.
During the March news conference, the commission's chairperson, Park Sun-young, responded to a plea by Yooree Kim, who was sent to a couple in France at age 11 by Holt without her biological parents' consent, by vowing to strengthen the recommendations.
However, the commission didn't follow up before the final version of the report was delivered to adoptees last week.
The commission's investigation deadline expired on Monday, after it confirmed human rights violations in just 56 of the 367 complaints filed by adoptees since 2022.
It had suspended its adoption investigation in April following internal disputes among progressive- and conservative-leaning commissioners over which cases warranted recognition as problematic.
The fate of the remaining 311 cases, either deferred or incompletely reviewed, now hinges on whether lawmakers will establish a new truth commission through legislation during Seoul's next government, which takes office after the presidential election on June 3.
The government has so far ignored the commission's recommendation to issue an official apology to adoptees. — AP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
36 minutes ago
- The Sun
Who is Poland's next president Karol Nawrocki?
WARSAW: Karol Nawrocki, the conservative historian who won Poland's presidential election, cultivated a tough-guy image during his campaign, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and boxing rings. While his liberal opponent Rafal Trzaskowski played up his European credentials, Nawrocki met Donald Trump at the White House and received the U.S. president's backing for his bid for Poland's top job. According to the final result from the electoral commission, Nawrocki won the election with 50.89% of the votes. Unlike other eurosceptics in central Europe, such as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico or Hungary's Viktor Orban, Nawrocki supports giving military aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia's three-year-old invasion. But he has said that, if elected, he will oppose membership in Western alliances for Ukraine, a position that seeks to chime with falling support for Ukrainians among Poles, who have hosted more than a million refugees from across the border. His backers in the Law and Justice (PiS) party had supported fast-tracking membership in the EU and NATO for Kyiv while in power until late 2023. Nawrocki's critics said he was fuelling unease over Ukrainian refugees at a time when the far-right is highlighting migration, the cost of living and security. He cited his campaign slogan, Poland First. 'Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first,' he said on social media in April. He is likely to follow a similar path to outgoing President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally who has used his veto power to block the pro-EU government's efforts to undo the previous PiS administration's judicial reforms. The EU says the PiS reforms undermined the independence of the courts. THE FIGHT IN THE RIGHT In the last two weeks, the candidates mostly fought for the support of people who voted for other candidates in the first round, in particular far-right's Slawomir Mentzen who came third with 15% support. Trzaskowski tried to attract them with promises of deregulation. Nawrocki touted his credentials as head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), support for gun ownership, traditional families and Christian values, but also a critical tone on Ukraine, in sync with Mentzen's. His wife Marta, a civil servant, and three children featured strongly in his campaign. Nawrocki's past has been a topic of intense public debate following a series of negative media reports. There were questions over his acquisition of a flat from a pensioner and an admission that he took part in orchestrated brawls. 'All my sports activities were based on the strength of my heart, the strength of my muscles, my fists,' Nawrocki, an amateur boxer, told a debate when confronted over reports he had been involved in mass organised fights between football hooligans. 'It was a fair competition, regardless of the form.' His Law and Justice party backers have accused the government of orchestrating the controversies with the help of Poland's special services and liberal media. The government rejects these accusations. Nawrocki portrayed the election as a referendum on the government, which he described as a metropolitan elite out of touch with their concerns. 'I am simply one of you,' he told voters in the eastern town of Biala Podlaska while on the campaign trail.
New Straits Times
4 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Wave of anger could sweep liberals to victory in South Korea election
WHEN then-President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law decree plunged South Korea into chaos, it plummeted sales at Park Myung-Ja's diner in Jechon and became a turning point for many voters in the town. The 66-year-old chef and restaurant owner is one face of South Korea's North Chungcheong Province, a swing region that has become even more pivotal at a time of deep political polarisation in Asia's fourth-largest economy. "We need to get furthest away from all that martial law drama to get things back to where they were," Park said at her Korean restaurant two hours south of Seoul, adding liberal candidate "Lee Jae-myung looks alright for that." Voters are now looking for the winner of the June 3 snap election to calm the economic and political shocks that have roiled the country since Yoon's December 3 martial law decree led to months of economic downturn and sparked nationwide protests. Park's Chungcheong Province is a key battleground for Kim Moon-soo, candidate for the conservative People Power Party campaigning on deregulations for companies, and liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee, who's vowing to bring back stability after months of turmoil. In swing regions such as North Chungcheong Province, where Jechon is located, the ruling conservative party risks losing a big chunk of its vote base with many voters blaming the martial law debacle for weaker private consumption and easing export momentum. Park's business crashed after Yoon's declaration with some of her biggest customers who are local council officials cancelling dinner reservations in groups of five to 10. "The first call I got on Dec. 4 was from a regular customer who does his year-end dinner here every year. I asked him why he is cancelling it, and he said – 'don't you watch news?'" Lee, who defied Yoon's martial law decree, had a 10-percentage point lead over Kim in one of the final opinion polls issued on Tuesday with 45 per cent of voters trusting him to revive the economy compared to 32 per cent for Kim. Conservatives have criticised Lee for a series of criminal cases he faces over accusations of election law violations, corruption, and other issues, but they have struggled to unify behind a single candidate and to distance themselves from Yoon. On Friday, right-winger Kim said voting for Lee would end up "collapsing our economy", hoping to sway voters in small cities such as Jecheon, an inland town of about 130,000 surrounded by mountainous tourist spots, who are looking for a turning point to revive South Korea's fortunes. But the martial law call continues to weigh heavily on conservative chances. "We definitely had fewer customers, especially from office dinners, after the martial law declaration. It did bite us hard," said Choi, a Chinese restaurant owner in Pangyo, a town south of Seoul. "Lee is someone who will uplift more of us who are not doing so well." Consumer sentiment, which dropped by the most since the outbreak of Covid-19 in December, recovered to pre-martial-law levels of 101.8 in May, on expectations of a fresh stimulus package under a new leader. The shock move rattled markets and put the won among the region's worst-performing currencies of the last year, hurt business sentiment even before exporters absorbed the full force of US President Donald Trump's punitive tariff policies. Now, the strains are setting in, as economic tailwinds from the semiconductor boom and reforms in the capital markets in the past few years are fading. Whoever wins the June 3 election will face an economy that contracted in the first quarter, manage negotiations with Washington to avoid high tariffs, and assuage voters such as Park who are seeing their living standards go backwards from elevated grocery bills and weak spending. South Korea's election campaign has been light on policy and heavy on spectacle after twists and turns involving the main candidates. "I wish they had taken housing supply and boosting the domestic market more seriously in their pledges," said 59-year-old Jung Soo-hyeon. "But perhaps because it's a snap election, that kind of in-depth consideration seems to be missing — which is a bit disappointing." Analysts say voters watched economic pledges closely as consumption has been badly hit. A win for Lee could spur "faster economic growth in the short term," Kim Jin-wook of Citi Research said. The Democratic Party "would likely be relatively more keen on providing policy and support for the mid-to-low-income bracket," he added. While both top candidates have pledged to draft a second supplementary budget for the year as soon as the election is over, Lee has also promised vouchers to help local businesses and subsidies for childcare, youth, and the elderly. While Lee has backed away from advocating for universal basic income, some voters including Park, who backed Yoon last time, said they see Lee as most likely to look out for their interests. "Lee's party seems to be willing to give out more to those who are struggling," Park said, emphasising that "change" is important.
The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
Wave of anger could sweep liberals to victory in South Korea election
JECHEON: When then-President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law decree plunged South Korea into chaos, it plummeted sales at Park Myung-Ja's diner in Jechon and became a turning point for many voters in the town. The 66-year-old chef and restaurant owner is one face of South Korea's North Chungcheong Province, a swing region that has become even more pivotal at a time of deep political polarisation in Asia's fourth-largest economy. 'We need to get furthest away from all that martial law drama to get things back to where they were,' Park said at her Korean restaurant two hours south of Seoul, adding liberal candidate 'Lee Jae-myung looks alright for that'. Voters are now looking for the winner of the June 3 snap election to calm the economic and political shocks that have roiled the country since Yoon's December 3 martial law decree led to months of economic downturn and sparked nationwide protests. Park's Chungcheong Province is a key battleground for Kim Moon-soo, candidate for the conservative People Power Party campaigning on deregulations for companies, and liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee, who's vowing to bring back stability after months of turmoil. In swing regions such as North Chungcheong Province, where Jechon is located, the ruling conservative party risks losing a big chunk of its vote base with many voters blaming the martial law debacle for weaker private consumption and easing export momentum. Park's business crashed after Yoon's declaration with some of her biggest customers who are local council officials cancelling dinner reservations in groups of five to 10. 'The first call I got on Dec. 4 was from a regular customer who does his year-end dinner here every year. I asked him why he is cancelling it, and he said -- 'don't you watch news?'' Lee, who defied Yoon's martial law decree, had a 10-percentage point lead over Kim in one of the final opinion polls issued on Tuesday with 45% of voters trusting him to revive the economy compared to 32% for Kim. Conservatives have criticised Lee for a series of criminal cases he faces over accusations of election law violations, corruption, and other issues, but they have struggled to unify behind a single candidate and to distance themselves from Yoon. On Friday, right-winger Kim said voting for Lee would end up 'collapsing our economy', hoping to sway voters in small cities such as Jecheon, an inland town of about 130,000 surrounded by mountainous tourist spots, who are looking for a turning point to revive South Korea's fortunes. But the martial law call continues to weigh heavily on conservative chances. 'We definitely had fewer customers, especially from office dinners, after the martial law declaration. It did bite us hard,' said Choi, a Chinese restaurant owner in Pangyo, a town south of Seoul. 'Lee is someone who will uplift more of us who are not doing so well.' HEAVY ON SPECTACLE Consumer sentiment, which dropped by the most since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December, recovered to pre-martial-law levels of 101.8 in May, on expectations of a fresh stimulus package under a new leader. The shock move rattled markets and put the won among the region's worst-performing currencies of the last year, hurt business sentiment even before exporters absorbed the full force of U.S. President Donald Trump's punitive tariff policies. Now, the strains are setting in, as economic tailwinds from the semiconductor boom and reforms in the capital markets in the past few years are fading. Whoever wins the June 3 election will face an economy that contracted in the first quarter, manage negotiations with Washington to avoid high tariffs, and assuage voters such as Park who are seeing their living standards go backwards from elevated grocery bills and weak spending. South Korea's election campaign has been light on policy and heavy on spectacle after twists and turns involving the main candidates. 'I wish they had taken housing supply and boosting the domestic market more seriously in their pledges,' said 59-year-old Jung Soo-hyeon. 'But perhaps because it's a snap election, that kind of in-depth consideration seems to be missing — which is a bit disappointing.' Analysts say voters watched economic pledges closely as consumption has been badly hit. A win for Lee could spur 'faster economic growth in the short term,' Kim Jin-wook of Citi Research said. The Democratic Party 'would likely be relatively more keen on providing policy and support for the mid-to-low-income bracket,' he added. While both top candidates have pledged to draft a second supplementary budget for the year as soon as the election is over, Lee has also promised vouchers to help local businesses and subsidies for childcare, youth, and the elderly. While Lee has backed away from advocating for universal basic income, some voters including Park, who backed Yoon last time, said they see Lee as most likely to look out for their interests. 'Lee's party seems to be willing to give out more to those who are struggling,' Park said, emphasizing that 'change' is important. ($1 = 1,376.1000 won) (Additional reporting by Yeonbin Park; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
