SEOUL: South Korea’s president apologised on Thursday for the first time over state-sanctioned malpractices in sending tens of thousands of children overseas for adoption, saying “unjust human rights violations” were committed.

An official inquiry held the government accountable earlier this year for facilitating adoptions through fraudulent practices, including falsifying documents and switching identities.

The country — now Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse — was for decades one of the world’s biggest exporters of children, having sent more than 140,000 overseas for adoption between 1955 and 1999.

International adoptions began after the 1950-53 Korean War as a way to remove mixed-race children, born to local mothers and American GI fathers, from a society that emphasised ethnic homogeneity.

“Recent court rulings and investigations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have revealed that, in some cases, unjust human rights violations occurred during overseas adoption procedures,” President Lee Jae Myung said in a statement.

“At such times, the state did not fully meet its responsibilities. On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I offer my heartfelt apology and words of comfort to overseas adoptees, their families, and their birth families who have endured suffering.”

Overseas adoption became big business in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, generating millions of dollars for international adoption agencies as the country emerged from post-war poverty and pursued rapid economic development.

While the country has grown into an economic powerhouse, more than 100 children on average have still been sent abroad for adoption each year in the 2020s, Lee said.

The main driver for recent adoption has been babies born to unmarried women, who still face ostracism in a conservative society.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2025