Open Letter to the Government of the Republic of Korea: Please Sign If You Are One Of The 56 Adoptees Who Received A TRC 2 Decision.
Image: Unsplash Stock
Facebook post by Danish KSS Adoptee Anders Riel Müller / Song Yeonjun, regarding his:
Open Letter to the Government of the Republic of Korea
Please click the link above to see the Open Letter.
IF you are one of the 56 Korean Adoptees who received a Decision from TRC 2, please be sure to SIGN the letter above.
Below is the original Facebook post about the Open Letter by its author, Anders Riel Müller / Song Yeonjun — in English and Danish.
Below that is the FULL Open Letter (English).
+
English translation via ChatGPT:
“In spring 2025, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluded that international adoption practices since the 1950s have resulted in serious human rights violations. Since that decision, very little has happened. The 56 adoptees who received individual determinations from the TRC are still waiting for meaningful opportunities for redress. Many of the more than 140,000 other international adoptees continue to struggle to uncover the truth behind their adoptions.
We urge the Korean government to act now. There is sufficient documentation of systematic human rights violations to warrant following up on the TRC’s conclusions. Truth without action cannot lead to justice or reconciliation.
We are among the 56 adoptees who received an individual determination from the TRC, and we are tired of waiting. We therefore urge the Korean government to act now, and we propose several concrete measures that the government can immediately implement for the benefit of all adoptees.
Please read the open letter via the link, and we hope you will sign it if you are one of the 56 adoptees who received a determination in the TRC’s investigation.”
Facebook post in the original Danish:
“Den sydkoreanske Sandheds- og Forsoningskommission konkluderede i foråret 2025, at internationale adoptionspraksisser siden 1950’erne har ført til alvorlige menneskerettighedskrænkelser. Siden den afgørelse er der sket meget lidt. De 56 adopterede, der modtog en individuel afgørelse fra TRC, venter stadig på meningsfulde muligheder for oprejsning. Mange af de mere end 140.000 andre udenlandske adopterede kæmper fortsat for at afdække sandheden bag deres adoptioner.
Vi opfordrer den koreanske regering til at handle nu. Der er tilstrækkelig dokumentation for systematiske menneskerettighedskrænkelser til at følge op på TRC’s konklusioner. Sandhed uden handling kan ikke føre til retfærdighed eller forsoning.
Vi er nogle af de 56 adopterede, der har modtaget en individuel afgørelse fra TRC, og vi er trætte af at vente. Derfor opfordrer vi den koreanske regering til at handle nu, og vi foreslår flere konkrete tiltag, som regeringen straks kan iværksætte til gavn for alle adopterede.
Læs venligst det åbne brev via linket, og vi håber, at du vil underskrive det, hvis du er en af de 56 adopterede, der modtog en afgørelse i TRC’s undersøgelse.”
+
Open Letter to the Government of the Republic of Korea
“It has been more than a year since South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that serious human rights violations occurred within the country's overseas adoption system. We are among the 56 adoptees whose cases were formally recognized by the Commission.
We had hoped that the Commission's findings would mark the beginning of meaningful efforts to address the harm that was done to adoptees and our families. Instead, we find ourselves in the same position we have been in for decades: waiting for access to information, practical support, and the government to take responsibility for what it already knows happened.
The Commission confirmed what many adoptees have long argued: Children were separated from their families through a system that was marked by falsified records, fabricated histories, deficient oversight, and violations of basic rights. Children with living parents were recorded as orphans. Children were stolen. Family ties were erased. Records were altered, destroyed, or withheld. Many adoptees were deprived not only of their families, but also of their names, histories, language, citizenship, and sense of belonging.
As a result of the Commission's findings, the South Korean government can no longer deny the systemic failures of overseas adoption. President Lee Jae Myung issued an apology, and adoptee representatives have been invited to meetings and official events. We appreciate these efforts. However, adoptees continue to face formidable barriers when trying to access records, locate family members, or understand the circumstances that led to their adoption.
Many of us have spent years, even decades, racing against time to find our families. Every year that passes means lost opportunities to recover information that should never have been withheld from us, to reunite with relatives, and to build relationships with those we were separated from.
With the establishment of a third Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the continuation of adoption investigations, we are left with obvious questions: What is the purpose of uncovering the truth if there is no clear plan for addressing the consequences? Must every individual adoption be investigated before action is taken? How many adoptees and family members will die while waiting for access to information that belongs to them?
The harm caused by overseas adoption extends far beyond the 56 cases recognized so far. Somewhere between 140,000 and 200,000 Korean children were sent abroad. The 56 of us represent only a small fraction of those affected, and even reaching this point depended on having sufficient access to records for our cases to be investigated. For many other adoptees, the absence or inaccessibility of those very records prevents their cases from ever being examined.
One example illustrates the problem clearly. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the orphan hojuk system violated the rights of adoptees by classifying children as orphans while authorities knew that many had living relatives. This practice severed children from their family registries and made future reunification far more difficult. Despite this finding, little has been done to make it easier for adoptees to locate their families or recover information about their origins.
We are not asking the government to solve every problem created by decades of overseas adoption. Not all our losses can be repaired. But the government can remove the barriers that continue to separate adoptees from their families, histories, and communities of origin and provide meaningful services to adoptees, their families and communities.
The Korean government has already committed publicly to providing meaningful and effective remedies to those affected. Yet these commitments have still not been translated into concrete measures. The establishment of a third Truth and Reconciliation Commission cannot become another reason to postpone action.
Truth without action cannot amount to justice or reconciliation.
We call on the Government of the Republic of Korea to begin implementing restorative and reparative measures without further delay in line with the government’s response to the OHCHR. The measures we list below are not sufficient on their own to address the immense harm that has been done. But they would represent an important beginning and can be implemented while the broader work of truth establishment, redress, and reconciliation continues.
Our suggestions for immediate measures
1. Ensure full access to records
Current privacy legislation is frequently used to prevent adoptees from accessing information about themselves and their families.
Adoptees should have the right to obtain complete and unredacted access to all adoption records, family records, and government documents relating to their origins. In its response to OHCHR, the South Korean government publicly stated that in order to meet the recommendations of the Commission, "The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, in consultation with relevant ministries and agencies responsible for civil status records, including family registries, will provide proactive support to victims of intercountry adoption identified through the Commission’s findings of truth who seek to correct inaccuracies in their current family records.
Nearly 9 months after the issuance of that statement, the task of birth family search assistance remains managed by the National Center for the Rights of the Child, under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and no additional measures have been taken to bolster the efforts promised through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to provide redress and reconciliation for the victims and the transfer of the adoption records from the adoption agencies to the NCRC has been rife with problems of mishandling of data and possible loss of data.
2. Expand access to national DNA databases and a national DNA collection drive
South Korea maintains DNA databases to assist with family reunification and identification efforts.
Overseas adoptees should be included in these national databases so that family matching efforts are not limited to the much smaller databases currently dedicated to adoptees. Currently intercountry adoptees are only eligible to have their DNA submitted to the NPA's Missing Children's DNA database, although the South Korean government manages several other DNA databases for the purpose of family reunification. Moreover, not all intercountry adoptees are eligible to submit their DNA to even this database.
The government should also fund a national campaign that encourages people in Korea to submit their DNA to increase the chances for matching adoptees with relatives.
3. Establish a dedicated national adoptee support agency
The government should establish and adequately fund a central institution dedicated to assisting overseas adoptees and their families.
This agency should provide support for:
Accessing adoption and family records
Family tracing and reunification
DNA testing and matching
Korean language education
Cultural and social reintegration
Practical guidance for adoptees who wish to live in Korea
Housing, employment, and legal assistance
Mental health and trauma-informed counseling
Support services for Korean birth families
4. Restore citizenship rights
None of us relinquished our citizenship voluntarily. It was taken from us by the Government of Korea when we were sent abroad. It should not be adoptees who have to bear the burden of reinstating their citizenship. It is the responsibility of the government.
Restoration of citizenship should therefore be a process of reinstatement, not an application that requires adoptees to rely on falsified records or legally sever relationships with families they have subsequently found. It should also be free of charge to any adoptee and the government should bear the costs of for example translation services.
5. Include adoptees and families in the design of all redress measures
Policies affecting adoptees should not be developed without the participation of adoptees and affected families.
Those who have lived with the consequences of overseas adoption should have a direct role in shaping future policies relating to access to records, family reunification, citizenship, memorialization, and reparative measures.
6. Establish a research and memorial center for overseas adoption
For many adoptees and families, the harm is not only personal but also historical and collective. A dedicated research and memorial center would help preserve this history, recognize those affected, continue to uncover the truth, and contribute to a wider public understanding of the consequences of Korea's overseas adoption system.
The history of South Korea's overseas adoption program is an integral part of the nation's history and should be documented, studied, and publicly acknowledged. The government should establish and adequately fund an independent research and memorial center dedicated to overseas adoption and family separation. The center should:
Collect, preserve, and make accessible historical records relating to overseas adoption
Fund independent research on adoption policies, practices, and their social consequences
Document and archive the testimonies of adoptees, birth families, foster families, and others affected by the overseas adoption system
Develop educational materials for schools, universities, and the wider public
Maintain a permanent memorial recognizing the children, families, and communities affected by overseas adoption
Facilitate dialogue and exchange between adoptees, birth families, researchers, policymakers, and civil society organizations
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has already established that serious human rights violations occurred within South Korea's overseas adoption system. The government does not need more evidence to begin removing barriers that continue to harm adoptees and their families.
We invite fellow adoptees, family members, researchers, advocates, and supporters to join us in calling on the Government of the Republic of Korea to take meaningful steps toward truth, restoration, and reconciliation.
Signed,
If you are one of the 56 adoptees who received a decision from the TRC, we invite you to sign the letter via this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVvVDBU28u41qJKcEwynlk5ERcocks3cr5f-EfQIRg1iQWbg/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=110298449755844739002”