A Korean Adoptee group’s false claims about the NIRS fire and TRC 2 records raise concerns about accuracy and accountability. You can submit your TRC 3 case INDEPENDENTLY.
Truth Allergy is estimated to affect one in ten Korean Adoptee adults. Individuals with this condition may experience adverse reactions when confronted with uncomfortable truths, including reflexive blocking or ghosting of those who present them. Other symptoms can include heightened defensiveness and a tendency to double down on misinformation through unverified claims on social media. Prolonged reliance on “anti-truth” blocking techniques may carry long-term consequences for personal credibility. If these patterns persist, professional guidance is recommended.
Recent false claims by a Korean Adoptee “representative” group for TRC 3 — denying that the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) fire affected TRC 2 at all, and falsely asserting that TRC 2 records were transferred to the National Archives — raise serious concerns about their accuracy, accountability, and commitment to the truth, even in the face of clear facts.
To be clear:
The NIRS fire of September 26th, 2025 absolutely affected TRC 2, to a degree about which we are not yet totally certain.
Additionally, TRC 2 records were transferred directly to TRC 3, and were NOT transferred to the National Archives.
Please see where this all began:
Statement by the Korean Association of Archivists: (We) “Strongly Urge the Establishment of a ‘Records Management Division’ in the 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC 3).”
We recognize that mistakes happen. None of us are perfect. When we are mistaken, we take pains to correct our mistakes. We think it’s okay to evolve, and to admit when we are wrong.
However, when we challenged this Korean Adoptee “representative” group’s false claims with facts supported by multiple credible sources, their response — blocking and ghosting us, consistent with their usual pattern of behavior — reinforced the deep concerns we’ve raised for years about the accountability and validity of such “representative” “Korean Rights” groups.
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As a reminder, you can submit your TRC 3 case INDEPENDENTLY, without going through or relying on any representative group.
Please see:
You Can Submit Your Case To TRC 3 Independently Of Any Group.
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We believe that the TRC 3 movement is important — and indeed, we were the first Korean Adoptees in history to submit any cases of Korean Adoptees to TRC 2 — on December 18th, 2020 — just 8 days after TRC 2 began on December 10th, 2020.
This preceded the start of the formal TRC 2 investigation into Overseas Adoption by two years. While TRC 2 lasted from 2020-2025, the formal TRC 2 investigation into Overseas Adoption did not begin until December 7th, 2022. We laid significant groundwork for this effort, and despite being ruthlessly blocked out of the effort by the Danish representative “Korean Rights” group who attempted to take false credit for our years of work with the KSS Adoptee community, we relentlessly supported the TRC 2 effort behind the scenes from 2022-2025.
We remain committed to sharing information about how to submit your case INDEPENDENTLY to TRC 3. Please review our many posts on our Paperslip Blog for more information:
PAPERSLIP BLOG: INFO HUB FOR TRC 3 AND IMPORTANT NEWS UPDATES
By the way — you could have submitted your case independently for TRC 2 — but the representative Danish “Korean Rights” group failed to publicize that.
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Can’t we all just get along? We wish. Our ability to “band together” with other Korean Adoptee groups involved in TRC 3 has been rather hindered by the indefensible actions of representative “Korean Rights” groups. On December 7th, 2022 — the very day the TRC 2 Overseas Adoption investigation began — we were abruptly and without any prior disagreement blocked from the movement by the Danish “Korean Rights” group, which has acted as a representative for both TRC 2 and TRC 3. Before being blocked from TRC 2 related groups, we had already submitted our sensitive, private adoption documents to this group. Despite repeated attempts at contact, we have received no response since that date.
We were, in many ways, the proverbial American canary in the Danish coal mine during TRC 2. The commission’s work focused primarily on KSS and Holt, the only two Korean Adoption Agencies that placed children in Denmark.
Since 2018, we have worked closely with the KSS Adoptee community, and since 2020, Paperslip has been the only platform in the world created by and for KSS Adoptees. Through this work, we have been in contact with hundreds of KSS Adoptees, giving us a rare, “bird’s eye” perspective.
From this vantage point, we were able to observe how the Danish “Korean Rights” group engaged with Adoptees who submitted cases to TRC 2. What we witnessed between 2022 and 2025 raises serious concerns — and we are here to share those experiences with you as a warning.
As early participants in TRC 2, we have serious concerns about key leadership of the “Korean Rights” groups — particularly their years long pattern of blocking and ghosting of Korean Adoptees who have entrusted them with highly sensitive personal adoption documents. The fact that key leadership of representative “Korean Rights” groups have such a hard time telling the truth sometimes is of great concern to us. We experienced the lashing effects of this behavior between 2022-current, and we would not wish this kind of behavior on any other Korean Adoptees.
We strongly urge caution in any situation where you are asked to share private adoption documents — with anyone, whether individuals, “fellow” Korean Adoptee groups — or the TRC 3 commission itself.
We strongly recommend that you REDACT any sensitive, private information from any adoption documents which you submit to TRC 3 — whether you submit INDEPENDENTLY, or through any representative “Korean Rights” group. You should assume that your documents will be run through AI for translation, and may be shared with third parties — such as leaders of the main “Korean Rights” group for TRC 3.
As our diligent fact finding has shown — neither TRC 2 nor TRC 3 have a “Records Management System” in place, which left TRC 2 investigation data vulnerable to the NIRS fire of September 25th, 2026.
Please take care to protect yourself, and your sensitive, private adoption documents. We deeply regret having shared ours with a now fully non-responsive “Korean Rights” group in 2022.
