Seoul: South Korea will end the long-standing practice of outsourcing adoptions to private agencies, placing full control of the adoption process under government supervision.
The move comes after an investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the country’s decades-old foreign adoption program was rife with human rights violations, including fraudulent orphan registrations, identity tampering, and lax vetting of adoptive families.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare will implement a restructured public adoption system, under which the state and local authorities will oversee every stage of the adoption process, from screening prospective parents to matching them with children. The new system is designed to operate under the guiding principle of serving the best interests of the child.
“This is a significant step toward ensuring the safety and promoting the rights of adopted children,” the Health Ministry said in a statement. “
South Korea began facilitating international adoptions after the 1950–1953 Korean War, initially as a way to relocate mixed-race children born to Korean women and American soldiers. These adoptions were presented as humanitarian efforts during a period of extreme poverty and social unrest.
However, by the 1970s and 1980s, international adoption had evolved into a lucrative global business, with private agencies charging thousands of dollars per child. Over 140,000 South Korean children have been sent overseas since the war, many without proper oversight or transparency.
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, government-endorsed agencies frequently engaged in systemic manipulation, often listing living children as orphans or altering identities to expedite adoption approvals and increase revenues. While the government hailed the new policy as a turning point, adoptee activists and child welfare advocates argue that deeper accountability is still needed.
Under the new system, a dedicated committee within the Health Ministry will review and approve all adoptions. Private adoption agencies, which once operated with minimal government oversight, will no longer have the authority to process adoption applications independently.
