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Gulf Today
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Soft power: BTS fans rally behind Korean international adoptees
K-pop megaband BTS is back from military service, and their international fandom -- long known for its progressive activism -- is celebrating by rallying behind a cause: adoptees from South Korea. Now Asia's fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse, the idols' native South Korea remains one of the biggest exporters of adopted babies in the world, having sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999. The country only recently acknowledged, after years of activism by adult adoptees, that the government was responsible for abuse in some such adoptions of local children, including record fabrication and inadequate consent from birth parents. The septet's fandom, dubbed ARMY, is known for backing causes like Black Lives Matter and ARMY4Palestine, and launched the #ReuniteWithBTS fundraising project last week to support Korean adoptees seeking to reconnect with or learn about their birth families, which can be a painful and legally tricky process. This photo shows a fan of K-pop boy band BTS holding an 'ARMY Bomb' and a picture of BTS members during the annual 'BTS Festa' celebrating the group's debut anniversary at KINTEX exhibition centre in Goyang. K-pop megaband BTS is back from military service, and their international fandom -- long known for its progressive activism -- is celebrating by rallying behind a cause: adoptees from South Korea. AFP Almost all of BTS members have completed South Korea's mandatory military service, required of all men due to the country's military tensions with North Korea. "We are celebrating both the reunion of BTS and ARMY, and BTS members being able to reunite with their own family and friends," the BTS fan group behind the initiative, One In An ARMY, told the media. "Helping international adoptees reunite with their birth country, culture, customs and families seemed like the perfect cause to support during this time." The fans are supporting KoRoot, a Seoul-based organisation that helps Korean adoptees search for their records and birth families and which played a key role in pushing for the government to recognise adoption-related abuses. Fans of K-pop boy band BTS pose for photos as they queue up for the annual 'BTS Festa' celebrating. Peter Moller, KoRoot's co-representative, told the media it was "very touching" that the BTS fans had taken up the cause, even though "they're not even adoptees themselves". For many adoptees, seeing Korean stars in mainstream media has been a way for them to find "comfort, joy, and a sense of pride" in the roots that they were cut off from, KoRoot's leader Kim Do-hyun added. Soft power BTS, who have discussed anti-Asian hate crimes at the White House and spoken candidly about mental health, have long been considered one of the best examples of South Korea's soft power reach. Pastor Kim Do-hyun (left), KoRoot leader who has spent more than 30 years advocating for adoption justice, posing for a photo with Peter Moller, KoRoot's co-representative, after an interview with AFP at KoRoot, a Seoul-based organisation that helps Korean adoptees search for their records and birth families. For years, Korean adoptees -- many of whom were adopted by white families globally -- have advocated for their rights and spoken out about encountering racism in their host countries. Some adoptees, such as the high-profile case of Adam Crapser, were later deported to South Korea as adults because their American parents never secured their US citizenship. Many international adoptees feel their immigration experience has been "fraught", Keung Yoon Bae, a Korean studies professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP. Some adoptees have found that, like Crapser, their guardians failed to complete the necessary paperwork to make them legal, she said. This is becoming a particular problem under US President Donald Trump, who is pushing a sweeping crackdown on purported illegal immigrants. Bae said it was possible that "'accidentally illegal' adoptee immigrants may fall further through the cracks, and their deeply unfortunate circumstances left unremedied". The whale Reunions between Korean adoptees and their birth families can be emotionally complex, as Kara Bos -- who grew up in the United States -- experienced firsthand when she met her biological father through a landmark paternity lawsuit. A general view of the sign of KoRoot, a Seoul-based organisation that helps Korean adoptees search for their records and birth families, at its house in Seoul. Photos: AFP During their encounter in Seoul in 2020, he refused to remove his hat, sunglasses, or mask, declined to look at her childhood photos and offered no information about her mother. He died around six months later. "The journey of birth family searching is very lonely, difficult, and costly. Many adoptees do not even have the means to return to their birth country let alone fund a family search," Bos, 44, told AFP. To have BTS fans rally around adoptees and provide help with this complex process is "a wonderful opportunity", she said. For Malene Vestergaard, a 42-year-old Korean adoptee and BTS fan in Denmark, the group's song "Whalien 52", which references a whale species whose calls go unheard by others, deeply resonated with her. "I personally sometimes feel like that whale. Being amongst my peers, but they will never be able to truly understand what my adoption has done to me," she told the media. "For me, finding BTS at the same time I started looking for my birth family and the truth about my adoption and my falsified papers, was such a comfort." Vestergaard said the grief woven into her adoption would never go away, but that "BTS and their lyrics have made it easier to reconcile with that truth". Agence France-Presse
France 24
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
Soft power: BTS fans rally behind Korean international adoptees
Now Asia's fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse, the idols' native South Korea remains one of the biggest exporters of adopted babies in the world, having sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999. The country only recently acknowledged, after years of activism by adult adoptees, that the government was responsible for abuse in some such adoptions of local children, including record fabrication and inadequate consent from birth parents. The septet's fandom, dubbed ARMY, is known for backing causes like Black Lives Matter and ARMY4Palestine, and launched the #ReuniteWithBTS fundraising project last week to support Korean adoptees seeking to reconnect with or learn about their birth families, which can be a painful and legally tricky process. Almost all of BTS members have completed South Korea's mandatory military service, required of all men due to the country's military tensions with North Korea. "We are celebrating both the reunion of BTS and ARMY, and BTS members being able to reunite with their own family and friends," the BTS fan group behind the initiative, One In An ARMY, told AFP. "Helping international adoptees reunite with their birth country, culture, customs and families seemed like the perfect cause to support during this time." The fans are supporting KoRoot, a Seoul-based organisation that helps Korean adoptees search for their records and birth families and which played a key role in pushing for the government to recognise adoption-related abuses. Peter Moller, KoRoot's co-representative, told AFP it was "very touching" that the BTS fans had taken up the cause, even though "they're not even adoptees themselves". For many adoptees, seeing Korean stars in mainstream media has been a way for them to find "comfort, joy, and a sense of pride" in the roots that they were cut off from, KoRoot's leader Kim Do-hyun added. Soft power BTS, who have discussed anti-Asian hate crimes at the White House and spoken candidly about mental health, have long been considered one of the best examples of South Korea's soft power reach. For years, Korean adoptees -- many of whom were adopted by white families globally -- have advocated for their rights and spoken out about encountering racism in their host countries. Some adoptees, such as the high-profile case of Adam Crapser, were later deported to South Korea as adults because their American parents never secured their US citizenship. Many international adoptees feel their immigration experience has been "fraught", Keung Yoon Bae, a Korean studies professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP. Some adoptees have found that, like Crapser, their guardians failed to complete the necessary paperwork to make them legal, she said. This is becoming a particular problem under US President Donald Trump, who is pushing a sweeping crackdown on purported illegal immigrants. Bae said it was possible that "'accidentally illegal' adoptee immigrants may fall further through the cracks, and their deeply unfortunate circumstances left unremedied". - The whale - Reunions between Korean adoptees and their birth families can be emotionally complex, as Kara Bos -- who grew up in the United States -- experienced firsthand when she met her biological father through a landmark paternity lawsuit. During their encounter in Seoul in 2020, he refused to remove his hat, sunglasses, or mask, declined to look at her childhood photos and offered no information about her mother. He died around six months later. "The journey of birth family searching is very lonely, difficult, and costly. Many adoptees do not even have the means to return to their birth country let alone fund a family search," Bos, 44, told AFP. To have BTS fans rally around adoptees and provide help with this complex process is "a wonderful opportunity", she said. For Malene Vestergaard, a 42-year-old Korean adoptee and BTS fan in Denmark, the group's song "Whalien 52", which references a whale species whose calls go unheard by others, deeply resonated with her. "I personally sometimes feel like that whale. Being amongst my peers, but they will never be able to truly understand what my adoption has done to me," she told AFP. "For me, finding BTS at the same time I started looking for my birth family and the truth about my adoption and my falsified papers, was such a comfort."
Int'l Business Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Int'l Business Times
Soft Power: BTS Fans Rally Behind Korean International Adoptees
K-pop megaband BTS is back from military service, and their international fandom -- long known for its progressive activism -- is celebrating by rallying behind a cause: adoptees from South Korea. Now Asia's fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse, the idols' native South Korea remains one of the biggest exporters of adopted babies in the world, having sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999. The country only recently acknowledged, after years of activism by adult adoptees, that the government was responsible for abuse in some such adoptions of local children, including record fabrication and inadequate consent from birth parents. The septet's fandom, dubbed ARMY, is known for backing causes like Black Lives Matter and ARMY4Palestine, and launched the #ReuniteWithBTS fundraising project last week to support Korean adoptees seeking to reconnect with or learn about their birth families, which can be a painful and legally tricky process. Almost all of BTS members have completed South Korea's mandatory military service, required of all men due to the country's military tensions with North Korea. "We are celebrating both the reunion of BTS and ARMY, and BTS members being able to reunite with their own family and friends," the BTS fan group behind the initiative, One In An ARMY, told AFP. "Helping international adoptees reunite with their birth country, culture, customs and families seemed like the perfect cause to support during this time." The fans are supporting KoRoot, a Seoul-based organisation that helps Korean adoptees search for their records and birth families and which played a key role in pushing for the government to recognise adoption-related abuses. Peter Moller, KoRoot's co-representative, told AFP it was "very touching" that the BTS fans had taken up the cause, even though "they're not even adoptees themselves". For many adoptees, seeing Korean stars in mainstream media has been a way for them to find "comfort, joy, and a sense of pride" in the roots that they were cut off from, KoRoot's leader Kim Do-hyun added. BTS, who have discussed anti-Asian hate crimes at the White House and spoken candidly about mental health, have long been considered one of the best examples of South Korea's soft power reach. For years, Korean adoptees -- many of whom were adopted by white families globally -- have advocated for their rights and spoken out about encountering racism in their host countries. Some adoptees, such as the high-profile case of Adam Crapser, were later deported to South Korea as adults because their American parents never secured their US citizenship. Many international adoptees feel their immigration experience has been "fraught", Keung Yoon Bae, a Korean studies professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP. Some adoptees have found that, like Crapser, their guardians failed to complete the necessary paperwork to make them legal, she said. This is becoming a particular problem under US President Donald Trump, who is pushing a sweeping crackdown on purported illegal immigrants. Bae said it was possible that "'accidentally illegal' adoptee immigrants may fall further through the cracks, and their deeply unfortunate circumstances left unremedied". Reunions between Korean adoptees and their birth families can be emotionally complex, as Kara Bos -- who grew up in the United States -- experienced firsthand when she met her biological father through a landmark paternity lawsuit. During their encounter in Seoul in 2020, he refused to remove his hat, sunglasses, or mask, declined to look at her childhood photos and offered no information about her mother. He died around six months later. "The journey of birth family searching is very lonely, difficult, and costly. Many adoptees do not even have the means to return to their birth country let alone fund a family search," Bos, 44, told AFP. To have BTS fans rally around adoptees and provide help with this complex process is "a wonderful opportunity", she said. For Malene Vestergaard, a 42-year-old Korean adoptee and BTS fan in Denmark, the group's song "Whalien 52", which references a whale species whose calls go unheard by others, deeply resonated with her. "I personally sometimes feel like that whale. Being amongst my peers, but they will never be able to truly understand what my adoption has done to me," she told AFP. "For me, finding BTS at the same time I started looking for my birth family and the truth about my adoption and my falsified papers, was such a comfort." Vestergaard said the grief woven into her adoption would never go away, but that "BTS and their lyrics have made it easier to reconcile with that truth". BTS fans have launched a fundraising campaign to support South Korean adoptees seeking to reconnect with their birth families AFP BTS have long been considered one of the best examples of South Korea's soft power reach AFP Kim Do-hyun (L), KoRoot leader who has spent more than 30 years advocating for adoption justice, with Peter Moller (R), KoRoot's co-representative AFP
Korea Herald
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Adoptees urge new investigation and justice after South Korea confirms adoption abuses
'This is no longer just a matter for investigation. It's a matter for prosecution,' says adoptee group leader Adoptee advocacy groups from all over the world gathered outside South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul on Thursday, calling for a new round of investigations — and legal accountability — over systemic malpractice in the country's intercountry adoption program. The demonstration comes around two weeks after the independent commission on March 26 announced that it had identified human rights violations in 56 of the 367 adoption cases submitted since 2022. As of March 26, the commission said it had completed investigations and issued reports for 98 cases — only about 26 percent of the total. Of those, 42 were dismissed due to 'insufficient evidence,' leaving just 56 cases officially recognized. The remaining 267 cases have already been investigated, but their final reports are still being written. However, with the mandate for this TRC -- South Korea's second in history -- set to expire May 26, it remains unclear how many of these will result in official acknowledgment before this commission's mandate ends. A TRC official cited the 'sheer scope and complexity' of the cases as the main reason for the delay. 'Our message is simple,' said Peter Moller, a lawyer born in Korea and adopted to Denmark, who is co-founder of the Danish Korean Rights Group. 'If all 367 adoptees cannot be recognized, a new commission must and shall be established — one that allows new applications.' Moller stressed that the burden of proof should not fall on the adoptees themselves -- as victims whose records were deliberately destroyed or falsified, in other words, whose human rights were violated through illegal adoptions. 'That's how the rule of law works,' he said. Advocates are also pushing for criminal prosecution — not just fact-finding. 'This is no longer just a matter for investigation,' said Min Young-chang, co-chair of the Adoption Solidarity Coalition. 'It's a matter for prosecution.' Min argued that the missing documentation itself signals wrongdoing, not a lack of evidence. 'Information that doesn't exist — that is the evidence,' he said. Min called for certain cases to be referred to prosecutors and the National Assembly, if necessary. Other speakers at the rally shared stories that reflect the long-term effects of South Korea's adoption policies. Cho Min-ho, director of the Children's Rights Solidarity, recounted being labeled an orphan by the state despite having living parents. 'I was intentionally made into an orphan,' he said, condemning the erasure of identity as a violation of both Korean constitutional rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Maite Maeum Jeannolin, a filmmaker and daughter of a Korean adoptee to France, highlighted the lasting consequences for adoptees' descendants. Under current Korean law, adoption records are permanently sealed after an adoptee's death — even from their own children. 'We deserve the right to understand it,' she said, referring to descendants' rights to search for their biological families. Ben Coz, a Korean adoptee to the US and member of international network ibyangIN, called access to birth and adoption records 'a human right,' citing international child rights law and professional ethics standards. He encouraged adoptees and supporters in receiving countries to advocate for policy changes at home, as governments like Norway and the Netherlands open their own investigations. He urged adoptees and allies abroad to contact lawmakers, noting that more countries — like Norway and the Netherlands — have launched their own investigations. Many demonstrators said they were unable to apply to the current TRC before the application window closed and are now left without any path to official recognition or redress. 'This isn't history,' said Min, reacting to recent remarks by TRC Chair Park Sun-young, who called the adoption abuses 'a thing of the past.' Min disagreed, saying, 'It's still happening.'
The Independent
27-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
South Korea, world's largest ‘baby exporter', admits to human rights violations to meet demand
A South Korean commission has accused successive governments of committing widespread human rights violations by enabling mass overseas adoption of at least 170,000 children, often through fraudulent and coercive means. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its findings on Wednesday after nearly three years of investigating complaints from 367 of the about 140,000 South Korean children sent to six European countries, including Denmark, which urged Seoul to probe the adoptions in 2022, as well as the US and Australia. It found that local adoption agencies collaborated with foreign groups to mass export South Korean children, driven by monthly quotas set by overseas demand. Many adoptions occurred through dubious or outright unethical means. The commission determined 'the state violated the human rights of adoptees protected under the constitution and international agreements by neglecting its duty to ensure basic human rights, including inadequate legislation, poor management and oversight, and failures in implementing proper administrative procedures while sending large numbers of children abroad'. The report released on Wednesday covered the first 100 of the 367 complaints submitted by adoptees taken abroad between 1964 and 1999. The adoptees, from 11 countries, had long suspected their adoptions were tainted by corruption and malpractice, concerns widely shared within the Korean adoptee community. The commission concluded that 56 of the 100 adoptees were 'victims' of state negligence, which constituted a violation of their rights under the South Korean constitution as well as international conventions. It noted that South Korean agencies were given sweeping authority over children, including full guardianship and power to approve foreign adoptions. Such lack of oversight led to large-scale inter-country adoptions, with many children losing their true identities and family histories due to falsified or fabricated records. South Korea has sent nearly 200,000 children abroad for adoption since 1953, making it the largest source of inter-country adoptees in the world. In the Asian country's impoverished postwar years, the government prioritised overseas adoptions over developing a domestic welfare system, relying on private agencies to send children abroad in exchange for fees from adoptive families. 'Numerous legal and policy shortcomings emerged,' commission head Park Sun Young said. 'These violations should never have occurred.' Peter Moller, a South Korean adoptee from Denmark who led an international campaign for an investigation, told The New York Times that the truth commission's report acknowledged 'that the deceit, fraud, and issues within the Korean adoption process cannot remain hidden'. The commission found that many children were sent abroad for adoption with 'falsified or fabricated' identities and family histories, often without legal consent. Adoption agencies, such as the Korea Social Service, misrepresented children's backgrounds to their adoptive families and profited from the process. They charged high fees and used the funds to acquire ever more children, the commission pointed out, making adoption 'a profit-driven industry' in which children were treated like cargo. South Korea's government has never directly acknowledged responsibility for such adoption practices. As of Thursday morning, Associated Press reported, the health and welfare ministry said it had not yet formally received the commission's report but would 'actively review' its recommendations. It added that 'efforts to improve the adoption system will continue', citing its preparations to enforce a new law taking effect in July designed to strengthen the state's responsibility over adoptions. The commission said the government had 'actively utilised' foreign adoptions, which 'required no budget allocation', instead of investing in a social safety net for vulnerable children. At a press conference on Wednesday, Yooree Kim, sent to France by an adoption agency at the age of 11 without the consent of her biological parents, urged the commission to strengthen its recommendations. She called on the government to promote broader DNA testing for biological families to improve the chances of reunions with their children and to officially declare an end to foreign adoptions. She said that adoptees affected by illicit practices should receive 'compensation from the Korean government and adoption agencies, without going through lawsuits'. In keeping with its findings, the commission recommended the government issue a formal apology, provide remedies for the affected, and ratify The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. 'It's been a long wait for everybody,' Han Boon Young, one of the 100 adoptees whose cases were heard by the commission, told CNN. 'And so now we do get a victory. It is a victory.' Ms Han, who grew up in Denmark, said that she was not officially recognised as a 'victim' due to a lack of documentation. 'If they say, we recognise this is state violence, then how can they not recognise those who don't have much information? Because that's really at the core of our issues, that we don't have information,' she told CNN. 'It's been falsified, it's been altered.'
