NCRC is going to destroy some of our former Korean Adoption Agency files, one way or another…
A reminder of our previous article, shared on January 28th, 2026:
Naver News Article:
‘“Adoption Records Will Be Damaged” — (NCRC Worker) Whistleblowing Followed By Workplace Bullying…Complaint Filed With Labor Office’
Excerpt from our “Paperslip Note” preceding the translation of the Naver News (Korean) article, linked above:
”A small group of activists pushed for the files to have “better storage conditions” by NCRC, following the FIRST transfer of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files to NCRC’s temporary storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do (which began July 19th, 2025). However, as we have unfortunately long known, two steps forward in activism can often mean ten steps back. In this decades long game of chess, the Korean Government has and always will be ten steps ahead of Adoptees — despite, or perhaps because of, their eternal and willful incompetence. The Korean Government has provided NO additional budget to NCRC for this planned 2026 movement of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files from NCRC’s temporary storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do to the Seongam Branch of the National Archives. With very few NCRC staff members to handle NOT ONLY this SECOND massive transfer of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files, BUT ALSO the massive influx of birth family search requests to NCRC from thousands of Korean Adoptees around the world, the precious adoption records of Korean Adoptees are at enormous risk of loss, damage, or destruction during these repeated moves from one facility to another.
IF the files currently housed at NCRC’s temporary storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do are treated with chemicals (pesticides) — as seems likely, given that NCRC has stated that the move to the Seongam Branch of the National Archives will take place in the first half of 2026 — then the needle has been moved from POSSIBLE destruction of some adoption documents over time to LIKELY eminent destruction of some adoption documents by the chemical treatment process. Not only that, but this SECOND movement of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files means that the birth family search requests of Korean Adoptees is likely to be bottlenecked for the foreseeable future. It takes a LOT of time, money, and manpower to sort out such a massive transfer of files — none of which the Korean Government has ever been willing to provide.”
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*Please note that it is unclear exactly when NCRC plans to begin the likely transfer of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files from their current location at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Location in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do to the Seongam Branch of the National Archives. It is presumed that this will happen sometime in the first half of 2026.
We predict that several unlucky Adoptees who visit Korea in 2026 with the intention of visiting NCRC’s Temporary Storage Location may be unpleasantly surprised to find that the files are in the midst of a chemical treatment in advance of a SECOND major transfer, this time to the Seongam Branch of the National Archives. We are deeply sorry for any Adoptees whom this may unexpectedly impact. We have to wait to see if NCRC will make any advance announcement about this, but we wouldn’t hold our breath — NCRC is not known for privileging the planning needs of Korean Adoptees.
Unfortunately for Korean Adoptees around the world, birth family search may largely boil down to DNA Testing for the foreseeable future. We unfortunately predicted that this would be the case as soon as we learned in January 2024 that the file transfer of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files to NCRC would be happening, starting July 19th, 2025. While we still encourage any Korean Adoptees with an interest in birth family search to submit a Petition for Adoption Information Disclosure to NCRC, we want to make Korean Adoptees aware of the challenges involved with this process.
We cannot more strongly encourage Korean Adoptees to take ALL possible DNA tests. Due to the multiple moves of ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files, these files are at increasing risk for loss, damage, and mix-ups for the foreseeable future. The one thing which guarantees finding at least SOME blood relatives — even if they may be distant — is DNA testing.
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Oh hey, unfortunately it looks like we were right AGAIN about the issues related to NCRC.
Almost exactly one year ago, on February 15th, 2025, we wrote the post below to counter the DKRG narrative that everything would be easy peasy once ALL former Korean Adoption Agency files moved to NCRC on July 19th, 2025:
”The Antidote To Rumors And Misinformation Is Accurate Information.
Addressing False + Irresponsible Rumors That Adoptees Will Be Able To “Easily Obtain” Their Adoption Records From The Korean Government Agency NCRC, Following The Transfer of ALL Adoption Agency Records To NCRC In July 2025. Yeah - good luck with that.”
While we don’t love to be right about all the terrible things about NCRC, WE HAVE UNFORTUNATELY BEEN DEAD ACCURATE about many of the issues related to NCRC.
Maybe people should listen to us when we try to WARN them about things.