KSS Adoptees sometimes find post-adoption childhood photos of themselves, sometimes including photos with their adoptive parents, in their KSS file (now at NCRC). What this may indicate.

Above: Our AI generated image of a white adoptive couple in the West with a Korean adopted child, following the child’s adoption.

Below:
NOT a real KSS Adoptee. This illustration of a FAKE KSS Adoptee’s file folder demonstrates the occasional placement of photos in the back of the KSS file of the KSS Adoptee AFTER she or he was adopted to the West. The KSS Adoptee may or may not have been photographed with her or his adoptive parents.

Inclusion of such photos of a KSS Adoptee in a KSS Adoptee’s file (or in a KSS Adoptee’s feeder orphanage documents) may indicate that the child’s Korean birth parents inquired about the child after the time of relinquishment to KSS in Seoul or to one of KSS’ feeder orphanages.

Korean birth parents were often anxious to know if their children were ok.

Korean birth parents often wanted reassurance that their child was safe and happy after the time of their adoption.

Whether or not KSS or the feeder orphanages ever shared these photos with Korean birth parents just depends on the individual case. Unfortunately, it’s not something an Adoptee can know unless they find and meet a birth parent to whom they are a DNA match.

Sometimes Korean birth parents left handwritten letters with KSS. We know in many cases, KSS never shared these letters with the Adoptee, unless the Adoptee happened to visit KSS in Seoul as an adult. In some of those instances which we know of, the birth parent/s had already passed away by the time the Adoptee received the birth parent letter from KSS.

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Please note that it was not likely out of “kindness” that KSS shared photos of KSS Adoptees following their adoption, with the Adoptees’ birth parents. It was likely done by KSS to PLACATE them — stop them from asking questions about where their children were and what had happened to them.

In a recent reunion case of a KSS Adoptee with her Korean birth mother, the birth mother had been told that the Adoptee was sent to the Netherlands for adoption — but the Adoptee had been sent to a DIFFERENT country for adoption instead. Yet the birth mother DID receive photos of the Adoptee from KSS after her child’s adoption. This reveals KSS’ intention — placate the birth mother, but NOT actually help her to find her child.

This deception by KSS — of both birth parents and Adoptees — is part of what we call “The Wall”.

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Please note that as of July 19th, 2025, ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files — including those of KSS — are now at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do.

For information about the NCRC process of viewing and obtaining a COPY of your KSS file, please see:

ALL ADOPTEES START HERE!
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