History of
Korean adoption
The Korean war
The adoption of children from South Korea has continued since the end of the Korean War in 1953. In 1955, an American couple, Harry and Bertha Holt were so moved by the plight of orphans from the Korean War that they adopted eight children from South Korea and brough them home to live with them in Oregon. This received national press coverage, sparking interest in adopting Korean children among Americans nationwide.
As a result, Harry and Bertha Holt created what has become the largest agency in the U.S. specialising in Korean children – Holt International Children’s Services.
Initially, most of the internationally adopted children were mixed-race from American (and other United Nations) military fathers and Korean women. The attitude towards biracial children in Korea was very negative; mixed-race orphans were often referred to as “dust of the streets”.
Gradually, putting Korean babies up for adoption became institutionalised. Over the course of several decades following the Korean War, South Korea became the largest supplier of children to developed countries in the world.
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200,000 (approx)
South Korean children have been sent overseas for adoption into primarily white families.
150,000 to the U.S.
50,000 to Canada, Europe, and Australia
In Europe, Korean children have been adopted by families in such countries as Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Germany, and Luxembourg.
Approximately 3,500 children have been adopted to Australia.
1950 – 1960
Prior to the Korean war, adoption was not common in Korea. Rare instances of adoption in Korea was within the same family. Traditional Korean society places significant weight on bloodlines and paternal family ties, and children of mixed race or those without fathers were not easily accepted in Korean society.
By the late 1950s and early 1960s, foreign adoptions had become the main social policy for orphaned children. Many impoverished families who could not feed or educate their children placed them in orphanages, hoping they could have a better life with a family in a western country. Most of the children adopted during this period were a few years old..
1970 – 1980
Industrialisation and urbanisation in the 1960s and 70s saw a change in many social attitudes, including increased divorce rates and teen pregnancies.
Unlike the period immediately following the Korean War when most adopted children were orphans or had been abandoned, the majority of the children sent for adoption during the 70s and 80s were born to single mothers from poor and working class backgrounds.
Women were not paid for giving up their babies, but they were often housed until the baby’s birth and had their medical expenses covered.
There are four main adoption agencies in South Korea, all closely regulated by the government: Holt Children’s Services, Eastern Child Welfare Society, Social Welfare Society, and Korea Social Service.
1988: THE SEOUL OLYMPICS AND INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION
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The Seoul 1988 Olympics was a turning point in South Korea’s adoption history. The Seoul International Olympics attracted the attention of journalists worldwide about many aspects of Korean culture, and much of this attention focused on Korea’s primary export: its babies.
Western journalists like Bryant Gumbel of NBC commented that Korea’s primary export commodity was its babies, and articles like “Babies for Export” (The New York Times) and “Babies for Sale: South Koreans Make Them, Americans Buy Them” (The Progressive), embarrassed the South Korean government.
North Korea also criticised South Korea’s adoption program, pointing out that selling its children to Western countries was the ultimate form of capitalism.
As a result, the South Korean government delayed the scheduled departure of adopted children before and during the Olympics. Between 1986 to 1993, the number of Korean children adopted by American families began to decrease, from over 6,200 to just over 1,700.
1990: EMBEDDED PRACTICE OF INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION
While international adoptions have long been associated with wars and destruction, in the case of South Korea, the largest number of children were sent overseas after the country had long recovered from war – the 1980s.
Since the 1990s, approximately 90% of all children sent for adoption were born to unwed mothers, most of whom were over 25 years old and many from middle class families. Critics of the South Korean adoption program point out that because of the government’s reliance on international adoptions, South Korea’s social welfare programs for vulnerable families and orphaned or abandoned children remain underdeveloped.
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Despite Korea’s ranking as the 13th highest GDP in the world and a national concern about low birthrates, the practice of overseas adoption still continues due to the continuing stigma against unwed mothers, lack of support towards unwed mothers, and stigma against domestically adopted children.
However, in recent years, single mothers and adult adoptees in Korea have been advocating for increased cultural and government support for Korean single parent families.
2000-2010: adoptee communities emerge
Korean adoptions peaked in the 80s, with notably high volumes the decade prior and decade after. Around this time many adoptees had reached adulthood and began seeking more connection with their peers who also grew up with this unique life experience.
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The first large-scale gathering of Korean adoptees took place in Washington, D.C. in 1999, followed by the second gathering in Oslo, Norway in 2001. The first Korea Gathering was held in 2004, after which IKAA was established. Since then, IKAA and its global network have continued to host large-scale international gatherings around the world.​
2023-ongoing: truth & reconciliation investigation
For decades, many Korean adoptees across the world have identified concerns surrounding their adoption. Eventually, as part of Korea's broader Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC), an initial submission of 367 cases were investigated and the TRC concluded there was sufficient, consistent evidence with these intercountry adoptions to conclude the Korean adoption program was rife with issues that breached the adoptees' human rights.
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Adoptees rely on identity records to confirm their identities. The Government’s systemic mismanagement led to the illegal and improper handling of adoption procedures, and as a result, adoptees were left unable to verify their own identities. Even in cases where intercountry adoption was legally impossible, adoption agencies created duplicate orphan registries to proceed with adoptions, or, when a child was suddenly unable to be adopted due to unforeseen circumstances, they substituted another child to carry out the adoption. Also, even when relatives personally requested an adoption, agencies failed to properly verify the relatives’ identities or their relationship to the child. In the case of foundlings, adoption agencies often did not accurately record—or even falsified—the circumstances under which the child had been found as an orphan. Furthermore, as adoptees passed through multiple agencies, identity information, including details about their biological parents, was sometimes lost. Consequently, adoptees lost information about their original identities and families, and due to decades of forced separation, reconnecting with their biological families became virtually impossible.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Comprehensive Report 2020-2025
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On 26 February 2026 the TRC reopened submissions to investigate further individual cases. On day 1 of the applications reopening, over 300 further submissions were made. The current investigation will remain open for 2 years and further information regarding how to make an application can be found here: https://auskrg.com/auskrg-trc3-app/
TODAY: RETURNING ADOPTEES
An estimated 3,000-5,000 adult Korean adoptees return to Korea each year and there are an estimated 200 living in Korea for extended periods of time. According to research conducted by Eleana Kim, while adoptees often desire to ‘fit in’ and suppress racial differences in their adoptive countries, they often face discrimination or rejection in Korea due to their Korean appearance but lack of Korean language skills and cultural knowledge.
In the past decades, despite barriers that make it difficult to search for origins, Korean adoptees have developed a unique international network of peer-to-peer connections and come together to exchange lived experiences being an adoptee, explore Korean culture together and often simply enjoy socialising with each other.
REFERENCES, LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Deann Borshay Liem & NAATA (2000), First Person Plural.
Kim, E. (2009). The Origins of Korean Adoption: Cold War Geopolitics and Intimate Diplomacy.