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.

Mental Barriers To Birth Family Search.

Something which we think prevents many people from attempting to obtain information from KSS is all of the gaslighting that has been expertly accomplished by KSS. Our own lack of knowledge about what is true and what is false in our stories often clouds our judgement and causes us to make incorrect assumptions. Attempting to get the truth can feel like swimming to the surface from the bottom of the ocean.

Learn how to Decode KSS’ Gaslighting Techniques here.

The first level of gaslighting is the concept of “Orphanization” by which thousands of us were told in our English Adoptive Child Study Summary that we were “abandoned” and found with a “paper-slip” or “memo” with “birth parents unknown”. However KSS secretly kept often more truthful information in the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary as we now know (and can obtain a copy of via email).

Because many of us think we were “abandoned”, many of us don’t know that it’s possible to do a birth family search through KSS in Korea.

Another layer of gaslighting is our own often erroneous assumptions. Because we don’t have easy access to original documents, we often assume that either everything we are told by KSS is true or everything is false, or we make wild guesses about what the truth is. We do the same for our adoption documents.

Because we often have, often without knowing it, totally different stories in our English Adoptive Child Study Summary vs. our Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary, we don’t know what to trust, or we trust a totally false narrative from our English ACSS because we don’t know that there is more truthful info in the Korean ACSS. Adding to the complexity is that birth parents or those who relinquished us for adoption (often extended birth family members) sometimes left false information about themselves, which was then recorded in our Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary. However this is not always the case, and the only way to find out is by requesting the Korean ACSS and finding birth parent/s named in the file and DNA testing against them.

KSS Adoptees also don’t know that sometimes notes with more specific information about their origin are written on the back of the Korean ACSS. The only way to know for sure is to officially request the Korean ACSS.


Adoptees often assume that no one has looked for them, but when most Adoptees don’t know is that Korean birth parents have no legal rights to look for their relinquished children in Korea. Adoptees don’t realize that they must grant KSS written permission to put ANY birth family members in contact with them. Otherwise, KSS won’t do so, even if a birth family member tries to find the Adoptee through KSS.

Because of the high probability of falsehood in our adoption paperwork, it is so important to take ALL of the DNA tests possible, in addition to requesting your Korean ACSS from KSS.

DNA is the only truth in Korean Adoption.