NCRC Has Just 4 Staff Members Managing the Massive Transfer of 260,000 Korean Adoption Agency Files.

And NCRC Has NO Archivists Involved With The File Transfer.

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Many Korean Adoptees know by now that ALL Korean Adoption Agency files move to the Korean Government Agency NCRC (National Center for the Rights of the Child) starting July 19th, 2025.

It has long been evident to us that NCRC’s birth family search division remains chronically understaffed due to the Korean Government’s persistent failure to provide adequate funding.

So when we learned that just 4 NCRC staff members would be handling the massive transfer of ALL Korean Adoption Agency files to NCRC’s temporary storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do starting July 19th, 2025, we were sadly unsurprised.

To give some context, KSS (Korea Social Service), the SMALLEST of the 4 major Korean Adoption Agencies whose files are ALL being transferred to NCRC beginning July 19th, 2025, for years had at least 3 regular social workers responding to the requests of KSS Adoptees (through email and in person at KSS’ Post Adoption Services building, where prior to July 19th, 2025, KSS Adoptees could conduct a file review with a KSS social worker).

KSS sent roughly 20,000 Adoptees overseas through adoption to the US, Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland, from 1964-2012. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 250,000 Adoptees TOTAL which were sent overseas for adoption around the world through all 4 of the major Korean Adoption Agencies between the 1950s - 2000s.

Yet NCRC has entrusted just 4 staff members TOTAL to handle the transfer of 260,000 Korean Adoption Agency files from ALL 4 Korean Adoption Agencies — a herculean task which obviously has the 4 NCRC birth family workers overwhelmed.

Something you should bear in mind too is that these NCRC staff members are NOT social workers — they are just Korean Government employees without special training in adoption work, who rotate positions every few years — meaning that there will be NO institutional memory from staff member to staff member as they change positions.

By comparison, KSS (Korea Social Service) had long-term social workers who knew KSS’ system very well.

It’s also important to note that NCRC has TWO locations which are about one hour apart — it’s temporary storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, and its NCRC’s main office in Seoul. This means that NCRC’s already small birth family search staff members will be DIVIDED between NCRC’s two geographically distant locations.

The two Archivists who were previously a part of the staff are no longer employed by NCRC, having left the project. This means that no one with professional experience with the archiving of documents is connected to the transfer of 260,000 adoption files.

We really tried our best for 15 months to WARN KSS Adoptees and all Korean Adoptees that the file transfer would be a disaster. Unfortunately, we turned out to be correct.

Please listen to us when we say — make your “Petition for Adoption Information Disclosure” (birth family search) request/s to NCRC BEFORE early 2029. This is because the Korean Adoption Agency files which NCRC takes over starting July 19th, 2025 will have to move a SECOND time sometime after May 30th, 2030 when NCRC’s current lease on its temporary storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do expires. We predict that NCRC will, without much prior warning, shut down its Post Adoption Services MONTHS in advance of the May 30th, 2030 lease expiration date in order to prepare for the SECOND massive transfer of all (former) Korean Adoption Agency files. This second massive transfer presents YET ANOTHER opportunity for files to get lost, mixed up, or destroyed. The second transfer of (former) Korean Adoption Agency files will also likely cause another major disruption in the birth family search process of Adoptees around the world.

We hope you hear and act upon our message.

Please see the link below as well as the other related links at the top of this page:

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