Note:

*While this website is mostly geared toward Adoptees who were adopted through the Korean Adoption Agency Korea Social Service (KSS), there is also information here which is relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees, regardless of their Korean Adoption Agency. Please read carefully to note what info. is purely relevant to KSS Adoptees and what is generally relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees.

Falsification in Korean Adoption Paperwork.


*Trigger Warning - Upsetting Content.

*Please note that this page is applicable to Korean Adoptees regardless of which Korean or Western (US, European, or Australian) Adoption Agency they were adopted through.

Korean Adoption Agencies and Western (American, European, and Australian) Adoption Agencies have been routinely gaslighting Korean Adoptees for decades by often (though not always) falsifying their adoption paperwork.

One major component of this gaslighting is Orphanization. *Please read our FAQ page here, specifically see the answer to:

”Question 1: (This question applies to Korean Adoptees generally, but may vary by individual case): Why does my English adoption paperwork say that I was “abandoned” with no birth parent information, but my Korean adoption paperwork has more specific information about my origin?” 

Unfortunately there were many possibilities for why Korean adoption paperwork was falsified in the past. We can’t speak to current adoption practices from Korea, but for adult Korean Adoptees, the bulk of whom were born and adopted between the 1950s-1980s, there are many possible scenarios and reasons for the falsification of their adoption paperwork. We will explore a few of these possible scenarios and reasons below.

Because there are so many possible scenarios for the falsification of adoption paperwork, it is very important for Korean Adoptees to do DNA testing, as the adoption paperwork provided by the Korean and Western (American, European, and Australian) to the adoptive parents and eventually to the Korean Adoptee is very often falsified in one way or another. The only truth in Korean Adoption is DNA.

*Please note that despite the many possible scenarios for the falsification of Korean adoption paperwork, that birth family search is not always hopeless. Record keeping by Korean Adoption Agencies got better in the 1980s as compared to decades past, and in some cases, Korean Adoption Agencies are now willing to share information with Korean Adoptees which they were not willing to do in the past. The main options for birth family search are:

1. Initiate a birth family search through your relevant Korean Adoption Agency (most likely to be either Holt, ESWS, SWS / now KWS, or KSS) via email. All 4 of the major Korean Adoption Agencies named above still have Post Adoption Services in Seoul.

If you are a Korean Adoptee adopted through the Korean Adoption Agency KSS (Korea Social Services) ONLY, you can learn how to start a birth family search through KSS here. Please DO NOT contact KSS if you are NOT a KSS Adoptee.

2. DNA Testing. We cannot more highly recommend that you do all of the DNA tests possible. Please see our DNA Testing page for more info.

Orphanization.

Click here to view our FAQ page and read the answer to Question 1 - (This question applies to Korean Adoptees generally, but may vary by individual case): Why does my English adoption paperwork say that I was “abandoned” with no birth parent information, but my Korean adoption paperwork has more specific information about my origin? 

Click here for our discussion of the concept of “Orphanization” as it relates specifically to Korean Adoptees adopted through the Korean Adoption Agency KSS (Korea Social Service).

Click here for our discussion of the concept of “Orphanization” as it related to ALL Korean Adoptees, regardless of their Korean or Western Adoption Agencies.

Because there are so many possible scenarios for the falsification of adoption paperwork, it is very important for Korean Adoptees to do DNA testing, as the adoption paperwork provided by the Korean and Western (American, European, and Australian) to the adoptive parents and eventually to the Korean Adoptee is very often falsified in one way or another. The only truth in Korean Adoption is DNA.

General Protection of the Adoption Agencies’ #1 Client: Western Adoptive Parents.

Korean adoption is an example of closed adoption, in which Adoption Agencies actively seek to conceal the identities of birth parents from their relinquished children and vice versa. Often the origins of Korean Adoptees were deliberately falsified by the Korean Adoption Agencies in order to prevent the birth parents from finding their relinquished children, and from their relinquished children (some of whom became Korean Adoptees) from finding their birth parents. Western adoptive parents in the US, Europe, and Australia were the paying clients of the Korean and Western Adoption Agencies, and it was the interests of these paying Western adoptive parents that the Korean and Western Adoption Agencies were serving.

Korean Birth Parents / Birth Family Left False Information When Relinquishing A Child.

Unfortunately it was not only the Korean Adoption Agencies which deliberately falsified information about the origins of a Korean Adoptee. Korean birth parents and birth family members who relinquished children for adoption also in many cases left false information about themselves and their child’s origins, for fear of the shame of being found out or for a variety of other personal reasons. We have anecdotally heard of many instances in which Korean birth parents and / or birth family members used someone else’s name in order to relinquish a child for adoption. Because of this and many other possible scenarios for the falsification of adoption paperwork, it is very important for Korean Adoptees to do DNA testing, as the adoption paperwork provided by the Korean and Western (American, European, and Australian) to the adoptive parents and eventually to the Korean Adoptee is very often falsified in one way or another.

Because there are so many possible scenarios for the falsification of adoption paperwork, it is very important for Korean Adoptees to do DNA testing, as the adoption paperwork provided by the Korean and Western (American, European, and Australian) to the adoptive parents and eventually to the Korean Adoptee is very often falsified in one way or another. The only truth in Korean Adoption is DNA.

Illicit Practices in Obtaining Children for International Adoption.

Sadly there were many possible scenarios for the illicit acquisition of Korean children for international adoption. These include but are not limited to:

  • Birth family members relinquishing children for adoption without the birth parent/s consent

  • Unwed Mothers Clinics coercing birth mothers into relinquishing their children

  • Korean doctors telling birth parents / birth mothers that their child had died, then selling the child to an adoption agency

  • Forced delivery of premature infants

  • Korean Hospitals offering to cover the delivery fees for a child by taking the child in exchange in lieu of payment - the child was then sold to an adoption agency

  • Child abduction (see section below for more information).

  • Police rounding up lost children for nearly immediate placement into an orphanage or adoption agency

  • The most extreme example of roundups of “vagrants” is the infamous concentration camp Brothers Home in Busan (trigger warning).

  • Etc.

In these and other kinds of scenarios, according to the Korean Adoption Agencies’ logic, it made sense to falsify the paperwork of children acquired under such illicit means.

Child Abduction.

According to KoRoot, child abduction was common in the 1970s and 1980s. One anonymous source (a Korean who is not an Adoptee) has shared with us that in the 1980s, he experienced 3 child abduction attempts. A black car pulled up and a man offered him candy and attempted to lure him into the car. Fortunately, our anonymous source refused the man’s offers and was not abducted. However, this one story illustrates how common it was for children to be abducted.

Children were often picked up off of the streets and taken to orphanages and adoption agencies. Very likely they were financially incentivized to do so.

For this reason, Korean Adoptees should NOT assume that they were all “abandoned”. While certainly child abandonment did happen, due to "Orphanization”, it is impossible to know in an individual Adoptee’s case whether or not she or he was truly “abandoned”, unless the Adoptee is in reunion with a birth family member who is telling them the truth about their relinquishment.


If you were abducted, and not “abandoned”, which you would likely not know about (unless you were old enough to remember), then it is possible that your birth parents registered you on their family registry, and there is a slim possibility that your real Korean name was used for your adoption process. For further information about how to act on this possibility in birth family search, please see the tip:

”Tip 1A: When In Korea, Be Sure To Visit Local Community Centers (주민센터) Close To Your City / Area of Birth and Ask For Your Family Registry (호적)” on this page:

Pro-Active  Birth Family Search Tips for KSS (Korea Social Service) and ALL Korean Adoptees.

Articles (in Korean) about child abduction - automatic translation not available

Article (in Korean) about child abduction 1 - automatic translation not available

Article (in Korean) about child abduction 2 - automatic translation not available

Article (in Korean) about child abduction 3 - automatic translation not available