Overview

• President Lee Jae-myung issued an official apology to people adopted abroad, their families and birth families, citing recent court rulings and the commission’s findings.
• The commission found the state facilitated adoptions through fraudulent orphan records, identity falsifications and inadequate vetting, with legal consent often ignored.
• Its report noted that in 1984, 99% of international adoption requests were approved the same or next day, illustrating the lack of meaningful oversight.
• The government has pledged to restructure the adoption system, curtail the role of lightly regulated private agencies and assume responsibility for adoptees’ safety and rights.
• More than 140,000 children were sent overseas for adoption from 1955 to 1999, and adoptions continued at over a hundred per year in the 2020s, which were not examined by the inquiry.