Public acknowledgment of my KSS K-Number research by Alice Hutton of “The Guardian” comes on the 51st anniversary of my deceased twin sister’s first intake to KSS in Seoul.

51 years ago, on or around October 24th, 1975, my likely twin “Baby A” was first photographed on the day of her intake to my Korean Adoption Agency, KSS in Seoul. According to her medical records, she would die there sometime between December 24th, 1975 and early February, 1976.

KSS then sent another child in my likely twin’s place for adoption. I only discovered this by accident in 2019. I was never meant to know about my twin sister or her death at KSS.

I have been searching for my deceased twin sister through KSS’ K-Number system since that time. In the process of researching KSS between 2020-2021, I decoded KSS’ K-Numbers, and discovered that KSS had secretly encoded these numbers in the first digit for KSS’ Partner Western Adoption Agencies.

Others have tried to steal credit for my research. But on the 51st Anniversary of my twin’s intake at KSS, I have been given public credit for the second time by a journalist for my work.

+

Thank you to journalist Alice Hutton of The Guardian for publicly crediting my contributions to her recent article, “Adoptees from Korea say they were abused and isolated in the US. Were they also ‘stolen’ from their birth parents?” in her recent Instagram post.

Alice reached out to me around May 2025, after she was referred to me by a Korean Adoptee friend. For a while I debated about whether or not I wanted my story to be in the press again. Ultimately, I decided not to have Alice write about my case despite our having a great Zoom conversation, during which I shared extensively about my case, but I was happy to refer her to multiple Adoptees for her story.

I am pleased that today, following her article’s release in The Guardian, Alice acknowledged my KSS K-Number research, in which I decoded the first digit of KSS K-Numbers between 2020-2021 in the context of my investigation of my deceased twin sister’s switch case. I am still searching for my twin through KSS’ multiple numbering systems.

Unfortunately, others have egregiously attempted to take credit for my work in the past, and there appear to be continued attempts by a S. Korean media company to co-opt my original research. During IKAA, this media company had the audacity to advertise itself through IKAA channels using an email employing the phrase, “decodeknumber”. The female Korean PD (producer) is well aware of my KSS K-Number research, which I have previously discussed with her through a Zoom at 10 am on Tuesday, July 29th, KST (Korea Time). She advised that I should publish a formal research study about my KSS K-Number research. Yet when I spoke with her in person at IKAA recently, she denied any knowledge of my research. Her close friend Bastiaan Flikweert was previously given false credit for my work by DKRG’s Peter Moller on January 1st, 2023. It took over one year for Bastiaan Flikweert to finally publicly admit he had NO role in my KSS K-Number research or in the decoding of KSS K-Numbers. I had thought that this matter was permanently settled, but it seems clear that there may be yet another attempt to plagiarize my work by Bastiaan Flikweert’s close media affiliates.

I do not need to do a formal research study about my KSS K-Number research, or any of my other original research into KSS history and practice. The Associated Press has already acknowledged my research into KSS’ numbering systems in the article which was published about my case on October 15th, 2024, and has acknowledged my role in the website I co-founded in 2020, Paperslip.org. Additionally, my KSS K-Number research is officially Copyrighted under U.S. Copyright Law as of January 2021.

+

Alice Hutton of “The Guardian” writes in her Instagram post:

“No long form piece exists without an army of help or influences behind the scenes that often goes uncredited. Along with the Guardian’s long-suffering deputy features editor, Sarah Rense, and their legal team and picture desk, I am indebted to a lot of adoptees who shared their knowledge and contacts with me, as well as a lot of academics.

First up is Rebecca Kimmel, who is in Korea at the (IKAA) conference in Seoul, and stayed up til midnight to jump on a call with me today when I was post school drop off and not very glam. Kimmel is a Korean American adoptee to the states and co-founder of (Paperslip.org) where she documents the fight for Korean adoptees to access files, family, identity and justice. In addition she decoded KSS K-Numbers between 2020-2021 and helped bring to light the systemic practice of ‘switching’ by her Korean Adoption Agency, KSS, and by the other Korean Adoption Agencies. She connected me to multiple interviewees, including Lauren White Gydas and Greg Luce, the founder of @adopteerights the Adoptee Rights Law Center in Minnesota, as well as several adoptees whose details were not eventually included.”