SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The 52-year-old woman, adopted by a French family in 1984 without the consent of her biological parents, has applied for compensation from the South Korean government.
Rare petitions submitted by Yory Kim I came in a few months Korea’s Truth Committee She and 55 adopters were recognized as victims of human rights violations, including the origins of the forged child, loss of records, and failure to protect the child.
Her case was highlighted last year in An Associated Press Investigation collaboration Frontline (PBS). The survey found that the South Korean government, Western countries and adoption agencies have been working together for decades to supply around 200,000 Korean children to overseas parents through suspicious or completely unclear measures.
Their stories sparked calculations that shook the international adoption industry that took root in Korea before spreading around the world. Following pressure from adopters, the Seoul government launched a fact-finding investigation, with hundreds of people filing lawsuits for review.
Kim’s attorney Choi Jung Kyu said her administrative claim, filed under a small provision of the state’s compensation law, would be groundbreaking if successful. He said that they can set precedents for others to seek compensation, without enduring long and difficulties. Litigation For situations that are rarely successful.
Whatever the outcome, it is being monitored as a measure of how the government assesses responsibility for suspicious practices that undermine South Korea’s adoption programs, which peaked in the 1970s and 1980s.
The government faces a call to take responsibility
The government has never acknowledged any direct responsibility for past adoption practices and has not yet acted on recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
After nearly three years of investigation, the committee concluded in March that it was responsible for promoting adoption programs with fraud and abuse driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs. It issued an apology to the government and urged them to develop a plan to address adoption complaints.
The Justice Department technically has four weeks to determine Kim’s request, but nothing demands it to meet that deadline. Her petition filed on August 21st has not specified an amount and will be left to the government to propose the appropriate amount. She could also pursue a civil lawsuit against the state, Choi said.
“How can I even begin to quantify the damage she endured?” Choi said.
Kim told the Associated Press on Wednesday that her adoption, which was found illegal by the committee, amounted to “invitation and forced disappearance.” South Korea committed “the biggest part of the crime,” she said. This is because they supported the adoption of “replacement” to Western parents who have never visited Korea.
It was a “state sponsored child sales,” she said.
An unbearable memory
Kim was 11 when she and her younger brother were sent to a French couple by Holt Children’s Services, a Korean adoption agency.
After the divorce, Kim’s poor mother placed her children in an orphanage, so at least they could eat. She says she never agreed to their adoption and just went back to the orphanage to discover they were gone. Kim’s father also said he never knew his children were being held back for adoption and never gave his consent.
Kim recalls physically, verbally and sexually abused at her adoptive home, and the allegations her parents denied. The judge dismissed the complaints he filed with his adoptive father for inadequate evidence.
Kim first returned to Korea in 1994, but for years he replied to her birth parents, believing they had denied abandoning their children. That changed in 2022 when she and her siblings confirmed from housing records that they were still registered under their father and never abandoned.
Kim’s adoption papers contain conflicting stories about how she and her siblings are eligible for adoption.
They said they had abandoned their paternal great path. Another document says Kim’s mother has agreed to adoption. The third says that the siblings “roamed” the streets and found themselves “emotionally stiffened” by the experience.
The contradictions created a false chain of guardianship that allowed adoption, and the orphanage never legitimately owned the rights of parents.
Choi said, considering Kim’s adoption is clearly illegal and lack of consent from easily identifiable parents. None of Kim’s records show any effort to contact his parents. Kim’s petition also cites screening failures related to adoptive parents. Her adoptive father was 50 when he received his siblings, exceeding the age limit of 45 that South Korean authorities had set at the time.
Holt has not responded to repeated requests to comment on Kim’s case.
A difficult legal battle
Truth Committee Before halting the investigation in April, weeks before the investigation deadline, 56 of the 367 complaints filed by the adoptee confirmed human rights violations. The fate of the remaining 311 cases has been postponed or incompletely reviewed, and now depends on whether lawmakers have established a new truth committee through legislation.
The committee’s report had clear limitations. This is not a thorough investigation into the benefits structure of adoption agencies, child sources such as hospitals, or national practices. Only 45 people complained US, Underestimating the biggest recipients of Korean children.
Some adoptees hope to use the committee’s findings to file a lawsuit against the agency or the South Korean government. But others, including Kim, are asking the government to provide a concrete plan for compensation, rather than forcing adopters to go to court.
Choi, who represents multiple plaintiffs suing the government for human rights violations related to past dictatorships in Seoul, said the government often struggles with long-term legal battles as they frequently reject Truth Commission’s findings as inconclusive or cite expiration restrictions laws.
Even the modest payments from Kim’s petitions have the potential to acknowledge government liability and strengthen future legal claims, he said.
