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PRESS ROOM
STATEMENT FROM THE DANISH KOREAN RIGHTS GROUP (DKRK)
The human rights organization Danish Korean Rights Group, which took the initiative for the first submission on behalf of a number of adoptees from Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Service, Inc., states:
We are the Danish Korean Rights Group in Denmark.
We thank the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for your partial decision on March 26, where the conclusion is in all cases that human rights and the Korean Constitution have been violated.
However, we are very concerned about the information we have received about uncertainty in relation to the remaining 311 cases. It is therefore crucial for us to emphasize that:
- No cases may be dismissed without a decision! The Commission can and must ensure that all 367 individual cases receive a final decision!
- It must not be the adoptees' own responsibility to bear the burden of proof!
- Adoptees cannot be held responsible for providing documentation that is withheld from us.
- We urge the Commission not to hide the truth for us. For legal certainty and for the sake of justice, it is absolutely crucial that all 367 cases are investigated and decided. If it does not happen, we will look at this very seriously and with deep grief that the work in the Commission for the last 2 years and 7 months is not being followed through. We will consider it as another violation of our rights.
On behalf of the Danish Korean Rights Group Anja Kaer Kold, Master of Law.
See more on https://koroot.online/TRC
Download section for main documents 1 and 2 to the commission
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Press releases
2025-03-25: South Korea Recognises Systematic Human
Rights Violations in International Adoptions
2025-03-24: Truth and reconciliation - upcoming report March 26th
2024-02-21: Krav om kommissionsundersøgelse!
2024-01-25: The Danish adoption scandal: Statement about the Danish report on adoptions from Korea in the 1970's and 1980's
2024-01-27: The Danish adoption scandal: Follow the questions from members of parliament to the responsible minister.
2024-01-25: The Danish report about adoptions from Korea in the 1970s and 1980s
2024-01-17: Statement from Danish Korean Rights Group: Denmark stops international- adoptions
2024-01-17: Udtalelse fra DKRG angående Danmarks stop for internationale adoptioner
2023-10-06: Ruth가 친가족을 찾습니다.
2023-24-05: Statement from DKRG: Wishful thinking or deliberate misleading of the people of Korea?
2023-16-04: Joint statement from the international Korean rights groups
2023-01-10: Press release: Denmark will investigate adoptions from South Korea
2023-01-05: Press release: Evidence of human trafficking found!
2022-12-07: Press release: We have an adoption commission!
2022-11-15: Press release: Ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity
2022-10-02: Press release: UN calls for investigation into international adoption
2022-09-29: United Nations Joint Statement on illegal adoption and more
2022-09-13: 보 도 자 료 / Press release in Korean
2022-09-13: Announcement from Danish Korean Rights Group (Peter Møllers speech for the press conference, September 13, 2022)
2022-09-13: Publication of letter to the president of the Republic of Korea (to be delivered September 13)
2022-09-13: Press release - KSS: "In fact, it was made up just for adoption procedure"
2022-09-13: Read the full confession from KSS to adoptee Louise Kwang about why they falsified adoption documents
2022-09-13: Fathers last dying words: "Promise me to find Kyung Sook so you sisters take care of each other"
2022-09-13: Letter to Danish adoptee Birthe Ladehoff from KSS
2022-08-23: Statement from DKRG
2022-08-23: Danish Koreans seek the truth in South Korea
2022-08-23: "When I think about the fact that they have lied to me, I get angry"
2022-08-25: Danish Korean Rights Group opens for all adoptees outside Denmark
Danish Korean Rights Group
in media
Denmark
12-02-2025: Omstridt arbejdspligt målrettet udlændinge vil også ramme adopterede
21.02.2024: ANALYSIS Which way is the minister going in the scandal about the stolen children?
21.02.2024: Demand for "urgent" digging into all adoptions
20.02.2024: She oversaw adoptions: "The system is rotten to the core"
12.02.2024: Member of parliament is reaching out to the minister:Take the adoption cases seriously
09.02.2024: Eksperter går i rette med socialministeren efter udtalelser om adoption:'Det er forkert'
25.01.2024: New adoption report shocks legal expert – Danish agencies known for cheating with identities
25.01.2024: (Danish radio): What responsibility should be placed after new report on South Korean adopted children?
25.01.2024: Minister on adoption report:It is incredibly serious reading
Parties call for digging after new report reveals cheating with adoption papers of South Korean children.
22.01.2024: Parties demand action:A legally binding inquiry into the adoption area is needed
22.01-2024: Stolen children and lies about dead parents:Here are the biggest scandals about adoption
16.01.2024: 'Crisis' in the area of international adoption:'One cannot be sure that the child has not been taken from other parents'
16.01.2024: Adoptions from abroad to Denmark stop after sanctions
03.12.2023: Desperate parents sent Christmas cards and messages to their adopted children in Denmark - several of whom were left behind for decades
02.12.2023: The Baby Facotories
20.11.2023: Denmark's only adoption agency receives a 'very serious' warning from the authority
28.07.2023: Hidden tattoos can reveal lies and concealments about Danish adoptions from South Korea
06.06.2023: Mistanke om svindel iMadagaskar:Danmark lukker for adoptioner fra landet
30.03.2023:Mia and 20,000 adopted children fight for the investigation of illegal adoptions
16.02.2023: 35-year-old Mia was lied dead and adopted away to Denmark
24.01.2023: After Danish pressure:Commission investigates adoptions in South Korea
25.01.2023: Adopteret på en løgn
24.01.2023: Løgnen om Louises adoption
Norway
24-01-2025: Norway's oldest adoption organization is winding down operations
10.11.2023: Considering stopping all adoptions to Norway
01.11.2023: Asks the Minister for Children to stop adoptions: - This is really bad
14.09.2023: Inger-Tone (58) asks King Harald to withdraw the merit medal
21.08.2023: Examining adoptions to Norway: - Even more serious than I thought
22.06.2023: Shall examine Norwegian adoptions from all countries
21.06.2023: Congested after adoption revelations
05.06.2023: Scrutiny of adoption must have trust
26.05.2023: Mother begged the Norwegian authorities: "Please help me"
23.05.2023:Authorities in 2016: Need more information on adoptions from South Korea
18.05.2023: "Adopted from South Korea reports Norway for human trafficking"
15.05.2023: "Toppe on adoptions from South Korea: - Must be thoroughly investigated"
14.05.2023: "VG reveals the adoption scam"
13.05.2023: "The World Children's Association: - We did the best we could"
12.05.2023: "The Orphans"
16.05.2023: Lawyer on secret payments in adoption case: - Gets angry
27.01.2023: Inger-Tone first to investigate adoption in South Korea
20.01.2023: Kjersti Toppe to VG: Opens external scrutiny of foreign adoptions
12.01.2023: Inger-Tone wants to know more.Now her story will be investigated in South Korea
International media
29-01-2025: Switzerland to end international adoptions by 2026
29.02.2024: Adoptions irrégulières: des Danoisveulent savoir
22.12.2023: The Swiss illegally adopted thousands of children from abroad
08.12.2023: Des milliers d’enfants étrangers adoptés illégalement en Suisse
08.12.2023 (6:27 minuttes into the program): Après la sortie d’un rapport accablant sur l’adoption illégale en Suisse, le Conseil fédéral souhaite réviser le droit international de l’adoption
29.11.2023: Sweden halts adoptions from South Korea after claims of falsified papers on origins of children
28.09.2023: ‘Korea is hiding our past’: the adoptees searching for their families – and the truth
17.09.2023: New York Times: World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past
05.07.2023: Competitive eater raised in Colorado brings awareness to personal issue at Nathan's hot dog eating contest
18.06.2023:The Adoption Investigator: Data on illegal adoptions in all countries surveyed
08.06.2023: South Korean inquiry to look into 237 more foreign adoptions suspected to have laundered origins
01.06.2023: In the land of abandoned children
12.05.2023: "In the late 1990s, the government destroyed meters of adoption files"
22.03.2023:Swedish investigator says S. Korea key to her adoption probe
10.02.2023: Implicated for "serious facts", an international adoption organization loses its accreditation
23.08.2022: South Korean adoptees allege they were wrongfully taken in, request Truth Commission investigation
23.08.2022: Boston Globe - Danish adoptees call for S. Korea to probe adoption issues
23.08.2022: Danish adoptees call for S. Korea to probe adoption issues
Korean media
Dates are shown as day-month-year
18-03-2025: "희귀 유전병 위독한데, 친부모 정보 접근 금지"
05-03-2025: Gov't to disclose results of probe into forced overseas adoptions this month
28-02-2025: [단독] 희귀병 걸린 입양인, 치료 위해 친생부모 정보 요청했으나 거부 당하다
22-02-2025: TRC confirms 31 children sent overseas for adoption through infamous Brothers Home
14.02.2024: [해외입양과 돈⑩]해외입양기관 부동산 전수조사, 아이 팔아 부동산 재벌 됐나
13.02.2024: [단독] “한국 아이 1200달러에 팔려”…박정희 면담 요구한 벨기에
13.02.2024: [단독] 부모 있는데 고아로 서류 조작…입양기관 불법 일부 확인
11.01.2024: [해외입양과 돈]⑧'차명 매입'과 소송으로 얼룩진 새싹동산 청려수련원
10.12.2023: "26년간 계속된 가족찾기, 과연 만날 수는 있을까요?"
06.12.2023: [해외입양과 돈]④해외입양 기관, 수수료 웃돈 취득·장부 허위 기재 의혹 - 뉴스타파
01.12.2023:[해외입양과 돈]④해외입양 기관, 수수료 웃돈 취득·장부 허위 기재 의혹
29.11.2023: [단독] 스웨덴, 70년만에 한국 아동 입양 중단한다
24.11.2023: Children cut away from Parents : Shadows of the Intercountry Adoption Business [ENG SUB]
12.11.2023: "친부모에게 사산됐다 거짓말하고 해외입양 보낸 이들은 책임져야 합니다"[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
05.11.2023: 큰 점이 사라진 사진 두장, 나는 진짜 누구입니까?
02.11.2023: [해외입양과 돈]① 입양기관의 새빨간 거짓말과 피해자들 - 뉴스타파
02.11.2023: [해외입양과 돈]② 입양인들이 갈망하는 '진실' - 뉴스타파
02.11.2023: [해외입양과 돈]③ 입양 기관의 벽 너머 가려진 '엄마의 이름' - 뉴스타파
02.11.2023: 부모를 빼앗긴 아기들, 해외 입양 비즈니스의 그늘 〈주간 뉴스타파〉
30.10.2023: 가족 모르게 입양돼 학대 받으며 자랐습니다
29.10.2023: 여자는 어머니에게 안아달라 말 못하는 자신에게 화가 난다[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
27.10.2023: 입양한 딸의 개인정보가 입양기관을 통해 유출됐습니다
26.10.2023:부모에게 들은 제 출생 이야기가 다 거짓이었습니다
22.10.2023: "독신 남성에게 입양 보내려고 제 입양 서류는 조작됐습니다"
19.10.2023: 저의 부모님은 모두 해외입양인입니다
15.10.2023: 우리 엄마는 양언니 생일 선물로 입양됐다고 해요
09.10.2023: 두 번이나 친어머니를 찾으려 했지만 실패했습니다"[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
09.10.2023: "항상 슬픔이 있었습니다" 장애 여성입양인의 이야기
06.10.2023: [영상] 비행기에서 그 아이에게 무슨 일이 일어난 것일까요?
01.10.2023: 생후 3주 뒤 행인에 발견된 저는 덴마크로 가게 됐습니다
29.09.2023: [영상] 해외입양인들은 최초의 '유령 아동'들이다.[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
24.09.2023: 5개월만에 다리의 큰 점이 사라진 사진 두장, 나는 진짜 누구입니까?
18.09.2023: 한국 어머니를 만나면 용서한다 말하고 싶습니다
17.09.2023:외할머니를 찾고 싶은 내 딸 "한국은 왜 미혼모를 돕지 않았나요"[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
11.09.2023: 두번이나 입양 거부된 양부모는 어떻게 한국 아이를 입양했나
09.09.2023: "제 양부모는 왜 열두살 소녀를 원했을까요?"[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
05.09.2023: 병원서 죽었다던 아이가 친부모를 찾은 사연
03.09.2023: 해외입양인 자녀들은 한국 국적 회복이 불가능합니다[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
27.08.2023:두번이나 입양 거부된 양부모는 어떻게 한국 아이를 입양했나[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
25.08.2023: [꼬꼬무 92회 요약] ＂너희 엄마가 널 버렸어＂ 44년 동안 딸을 절대 찾을 수 없었던 이유
20.08.2023: 가족 모르게 노르웨이로 입양돼 학대 받으며 자랐습니다
12.08.2023: 2주후 양부모에게 보내진 제가 진짜 '김미화' 일까요?
06.08.2023: 美 핫도그 먹기 대회 참가한 입양인 손에 쥔 태극기의 의미는?
23.07.2023: "평생 저를 찾은 친어머니는 재회 후 한달만에 돌아가셨습니다"
22.07.2023: Inadequacy of adoption records management criticized during Assembly forum
21.07.2023: 진실화해위원회, 해외 입양알선기관 방문 등 조사 본격화 보도자료
08.07.2023: 열세살에 노르웨이로 입양된 아내, 지옥 같은 삶을 살았습니다
16.07.2023: [풀버전] 비극의 대한민국-영아살해와 저출생 - 스트레이트 219회
16.07-2023: [예고] 비극의 대한민국-영아살해와 저출생 | 219회 스트레이트 예고
04.07.2023: Danish-Korean band Meejah explores transnational roots
01.07.2023: "우리는 딸이 진실을 알기를 바랍니다"[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
22.06.2023: "검토한 1000건 중 문제 없는 입양은 1건도 없었습니다"
24.06.2023: "부모에게 들은 제 출생 이야기가 다 거짓이었습니다"
17.06.2023: "병원서 태어나자마자 죽었다던 아이가 친부모를 찾았습니다"
13.06.2023: "사랑하는 사람이자 친한 친구이자 아이들의 아빠를 잃었습니다"
10.06.2023: 한국이 언제까지 저개발 식민지 취급을 받아야 하나요?
10.06.2023: [YTN 탐사 보고서 기록] 해외입양 끝나지 않은 이야기 / YTN
09.06.2023: [인터뷰]해외입양 과정 인권침해 사건
03.06.2023: "한국 어머니를 만나면 용서한다 말하고 싶습니다"
29.05.2023: "시장에서 어머니 손 놓쳐...갸름한 어머니 얼굴만 기억나요"[잃어버린 가족찾기]
28.05.2023: [글로벌코리안 5/28] 마이스토리 31화. "해외입양인의 권리 보장되길"…입양 활동가로 ...
27.05.2023: 입양인 아내가 사별한 입양인 남편에게 보내는 편지 "너무 그립습니다
23.05.2023: "입양은 나와 남편, 세 아이의 삶을 지배했습니다"
18.05.2023: "43년 만에 실종 아동 2명 확인…단서가 된 외신기자 사진"
17.05.2023:‘혼돈의 삶’ 입양인들 “우리의 역사를 알 권리” 인정돼야
17.05.2023: "작은 쪽지 하나라도…“입양인 뿌리 찾기 위해 기록 공개해야”
16.05.2023: "김장독 3개도 기억하는 내가, 집 없는 고아라니…"
16.05.2023: "끝나지 않은 싸움…“국가 책임 밝혀달라” [9시 뉴스] / KBS 2023.05.16."
15.05.2023: “양아버지 동의서를 가져와도, 입양 서류를 보여주지 않았어요”
15.05.2023: “고아라는 것도, 양어머니 존재도 모두 거짓이었다”
15.05.2023: "홀트, 아기 빼돌렸나…“엄마 왔을 때 ‘애 없어요’ 거짓말”
13.05.2023: "1980년 서울서 수류탄 폭발로 거리에 버려져 입양됐다구요?"
11.05.2023: 산모도, 아동도 보호하지 못하는 '익명출산제' 반대 움직임
11.05.2023: 해외입양 보내려 '고아'로 조작…입양인들 "인권침해 진상 밝혀야"
11.05.2023: [5월 11일 입양의 날] 46년만에 받은 생모의 편지…"이번 생에 당신을 만날 수 있기를"#입양#가족#정체성#국적
11.05.2023: 해외입양인단체 발족식 및 DNA 은행 설립 촉구 관련 기자회견
06.05.2023: 검토한 1천건 중 문제 없는 입양은 한건도 없었습니다
30.04.2023: 장애 여성 입양인의 덴마크에서의 삶 "항상 깊은 슬픔이 있었습니다
22.04.2023: '입양인 3명 중 1명이 학대 경험' 연구가 말도 안된다고요?[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
15.04.2023: 6살때까지 다섯 가정 떠돈 아이가 양부모와 애착이 가능할까요?
08.04.2023: 덴마크인이 되는 것이 정말 내게 더 나은 선택이었을까?
04.04.2023: 거액 알선료 노리고 입양서류 위조 정황…35년전 정부 문건 확인
03.04.2023: [단독] ‘입양 뒷돈’ 정부 문서로 최초 확인…“아이당 최소 3천 달러” [9시 뉴스] / KBS 2023.04.03.
03.04.2023: [단독] ‘입양 뒷돈’ 정부 문서로 최초 확인…“아이당 최소 3천 달러”
01.04:2023: "생후 19개월 울면서 떠난 한국에서 제 흔적을 찾고 싶습니다"[372명 해외입양인들의 진실 찾기]
25.03.2023:한국 아이 입양한 노르웨이 엄마가, '진실 찾기'를 지지합니다
24.03.2023: ‘고아 수출국’ 과정…해외 조사단도 들여다본다
18.03.2023:"나는 '완벽한 백인 딸'로 살아야 했습니다"
11.03.2023: "다음 생엔 절대 입양인이 되지 않을 것입니다"
04.03.2023: "친아버지, 기다려주고 용서해주셔서 감사합니다"
27.02.2023: S. Korea, Norway to Cooperate on Wrongful Foreign Adoption Cases
27.02.2023: 해외 입양과정 납치나 신원 조작있었나? 진실화해위-노르웨이 국회 '협력' 약속
24.02.2023: 쌍둥이로 둔갑한 자매, 죽었다던 아이가 해외입양?
25.02.2023: "재회 후 다시 연락이 끊긴 엄마, 괴로워 죽을 것 같습니다"
22.02.2023: [National Assembly Conference] 해외입양인 인권보장 방안 모색을 위한 국회 토론회
19.02.2023:"한 건당 약 2000만원"…여전히 의문 투성이 해외입양 수수료
11.02.2023: 입양기관의 거짓말, 어머니는 입양에 동의한 적 없었다
04.02.2023: 내 친구가 입양인이 아니었다면, 30대에 자살했을까요?
28.02.2023: 한국이 해외입양의 책임을 질 것이라 믿습니다
23.01.2023: 제 남편은 친어머니 모르게 입양 보내진 덴마크 입양인입니다
19.01.2023: [뉴스7/포커스M] "생이별한 엄마 찾아요"…출산율 꼴찌인데 아동 수출 세계 3위
14.01.2023: 양아버지는 제가 '아동 매매' 피해자란 사실에 무너졌습니다
07.01.2023: 태어나지도 않고 죽은 아기들을 추모합니다
22-08-2022:고아로 조작·입양 도중 사망”…‘입양 잔혹사’ 드러날까?
Keep in touch
CONTACT US
Understand the DKRG request to Koreas Truth and Reconciliation Commission (more topics are under construction)
The Swiss report about adoptions from Korea
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The Danish report about adoptions from Korea in the 1970s and 1980s (published January 25, 2024)
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Understand donations to Korean adoption agencies Holt and KSS
The features are from the Korean investigative media Newstapa and are based on documents and correspondence between the Danish adoption agencies and the Korean adoption agencies Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Services, Inc.
Cases and transactions before 1976 also include the company Holt International, because Holt in Korea and Holt in the USA were the same group.
The source material is publicly available on the Danish adoption authority's website www.ast.dk.
You can read more from Newstapa here
Understand the role of the Korean state and the adoption agencies
Evidence:
Holt Childrens Service made children orphans on paper and falsified background information
Legal definition of an orphan:
"A child meets orphan requirements if: The child's parent(s) are legally deceased; and. The child has not acquired another parent (such as a stepparent or legal adoptive parent)"
Kirsten Sandberg is professor of children's law at the University of Oslo.She has also chaired the UN Children's Committee.
- All adoptions must be voluntary on the part of the biological parents. But in these cases, the Norwegian authorities do not know whether the mother has consented or not, because she has been removed from the documents. Therefore, I believe this is an unsustainable and illegal practice. (Read Norwegian news article from May 14, 2023)
The words come from former Holt director Kim Dae Schick:
"Holt confirms to Norwegian media that it was common to omit the names of single mothers in the adoption documents. The agency would spare them the stigma of having a child out of wedlock", Norwegian VG, May 13 2023
The Norwegian Holt-scandal: Norwegian VG news media reveals the adoption scam of Holt
In 1996 and in 2002, the Ministry of Children and Families, the National Adoption Office and BUFA went on inspection trips to South Korea to investigate the adoption business.
They met with both the South Korean authorities and the adoption agency Holt.
There, the Norwegian delegation also learns the following:
Because the biological parents are not listed in the documents, it is the head of the adoption agency who approves that the child can be adopted away.
This approval, a so-called "Statement of Release for adoption", is the very basis for the adoption which is later carried out in Norway.
- It doesn't work! says professor of jurisprudence at Oslo Met, Julia Köhler-Olsen after learning about the contents of the reports.
- Removing information about biological origin in this way is not legal. It is a serious encroachment on the child's right to privacy, family life and identity - and violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Norway has committed to follow, she says.
In an inspection report after a trip to South Korea in 2002, the Children, Youth and Family Administration writes:
"Despite the fact that biological origins, at least the mothers, are almost always known, the child's background is stated as unknown on the release document".
By then, the Norwegian authorities had learned that children of single mothers were registered as orphans or of unknown background in the official adoption documents. This despite the fact that the mothers were alive.
"This goes against our legislation and our attitude towards a child's need for and right to know his biological origin where this is possible," states the report, which was handed over to the Ministry of Children and Families.
Professor of children's law Kirsten Sandberg calls it an "unacceptable legal construction".
- This goes against both the Children's Convention and the Hague Convention to which Norway committed itself in the 1990s.
The association Verdens Barn has carried out adoptions from South Korea to Norway since 1969. Today, managing director Young K. Kim says this to VG:
- We are not the ones who create adoption documents. It's happening in Korea.
Verdens Barn has been aware of how the documents were filled out - and has never tried to hide this from the Norwegian authorities, says Young.
Do you know something?
Tip the DKRG!
If you are Korean you can write in Korean language.
Were the adoption agencies ever humanitarian projects or were they in fact human trafficking institutions?
Read and decide for your self!
For decades, people all over the world have been donating money to adoption agencies like Holt and Korean Social Service! The donations were made in the belief that they were humanitarian efforts, but were they really? What were your donations used for? The documents here have been discovered in Korea's own National Archives. These are not the words of the adoptees, but the Korean state's own words!
Ongoing research by DKRG
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DKRG is currently investigating document falsifications by Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Service, Inc., dealing with past and present actions. The challenges are that the fakes and frauds of the adoption companies are not completed acts in the past, but are being produced in the present day.
DKRG and our partner organizations have initiated an investigation of the adoption agencies' medical documents over the years. A worrying picture emerges of the adoption agencies' practices to date. These investigations point to Korean children who have died in the custody of adoption agencies and possible document fraud.
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Over the years, millions of dollars have been sent from the recipient countries to the adoption companies Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Service, Inc. One thing we know! The money did not go to humanitarian purposes or child welfare! But what were they used for? How many hundreds of millions of dollars is this about? Who got the money? Who are the dark masters of the adoption industry hiding in the shadows? DKRG and our partner organizations follow the money!
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Watch the United Nations session on illegal intercountry adoptions, 20th of September 2023
Click here to watch
"The joint statement was issued while the question of illegal intercountry adoptions is being raised in several countries, with an increasing number of adoptees discovering inconsistencies or errors in their adoption process, and that stories they had been told about their origins and the reasons for their adoptions were fake."
Recipe: How to make a Korean child disappear
In Korea, it was easy to make a child disappear! It actually only took a few ingredients…
- 1 Korean child (the child could be stolen, abducted or come from forced Korean mother)
- 5-10 forged home-made template documents
- 1 made up story about the child's origin, which could be used for the official adoption story
- 1-2 fabricated narratives about God's blessing of adoptions
- The whole thing was seasoned with equal parts greed for money and cynicism
Once a Korean adoption agency had taken in a child (we know this happened in many different ways), the child's origin was masked by the adoption agencies to hide the child's true origin.
After that, a series of documents were drawn up by the adoption agency and the child was offered on the world market, where there was a demand for Korean children.
After this, the Korean adoption agency arranged for a document to be made, so that their own director or president of the company was the guardian of the child, so that it appeared to the outside world that this person was looking after the best interests of the child.
After that, it was just a matter of sending bank details and putting the Korean child on a plane to the destination country.
That it could even be done is one of the reasons why DKRG has requested the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate adoptions from Korea!
In Denmark we have the words of the directors of the Danish adoption agency that they knew about falsification of documents and the double archives of the adoption agencies!
Testimonials from adoptees
(Will be continuously updated)
Courtesy of Pression (c) 2023
Understanding the Korean procedure of foundlings
This document is from Korea's own National Archives. It describes the procedure for how the police must deal with an end foundling or abandoned child.
The document is very comprehensive and detailed and describes who does what.
The document also mentions documents and procedures for the child.
The problem is simply that the Korean agencies do not admit to knowledge of the procedure and deny any knowledge of the documents.
Still, the adoption agencies claim to have received a missing child from the police, but they simply cannot prove it when the adoptees ask for documentation of it.
Understanding Namkwang and KSS
Of the adoptees' documents from Korean Social Service, Inc. it appears that the adoptees were found on the street by passers-by and handed in to a police station, which handed the child over to municipal social authorities and from there to temporary protection at the Namkwang Orphanage in Busan. Namkwang Orphanage in Busan then sent the child to the adoption company Korean Social Service, Inc., which subsequently sent the child for overseas adoption. BUT....
When the adoptee approaches Korean Social Service, Inc. and asks for documents proving the adoption company's official history, the adoptee's background suddenly changes. Then the child is not found in the streets of Busan. Yes, actually the kid has never been to Busan at all. The child has never been to Namkwang and has never been in contact with municipal authorities in Namkwang.
All we know is that the child was sent via Korean Social Service, Inc. to a foreign country via overseas adoption!
But where does the adopted person come from? This is what we are asking the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission to find out!
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Understanding the duties of the Korean adoption agencies and the procedures before adoption
When a Korean adoption agency received a child, the Korean government had established a procedure under the Korean Adoption Act for how a Korean child should be handled prior to the adoption process.
The Korean government's procedure was very detailed and required all adoption agencies in Korea to do this process.
The only problem is that when the adoptees ask for documents that appear from the procedure set by the Korean government, no adoption agency has any of these documents.
Did the adoption agencies follow procedures? That's what we asked the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission!
What does Korean law and international law say about the rights of adoptees?
And does the Korean state and the adoption agencies comply?
Article 8 also says that a child or young person should be able to find out about their early life. It says they should be able to find out about the country they’re from, and that they should be able to enjoy its culture, religion and language.
The European Court of Human Rights of Human Rights has confirmed family life can exist between siblings—reinforcing your European Convention on Human Rights right to family life.
Article 8
1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.
2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.
The UNCRC also says that every effort should be made to enable siblings to maintain contact with each other, unless this is against their wishes or interests.
United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (II B (17)
Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which is about the child’s right to a family life, also talks about the importance of a child’s right to an identity. It recognises the importance of siblings, grandparents and other relatives to a child’s sense of identity.
Admission of falisification of adoptee's documents
Understanding the hojuk trick
The agency hojuk trick is to take a Korean child without any birth registration and make a hojuk as if the child has no parents.
Children that have been registered by Korean family and are registered on the family registration gets a new hojuk by request of the adoption agency.
That means that the child in some cases appears to have two family registrations: One of the Korean family and another "orphan hojuk" produced by the adoption agency.
The "orphanized" version of the adoptee is the one who is adopted. The real Korean family registered verion of the Korean child "stays" in Korea and is registered still as a Korean citizen in some cases.
The only official document that the adoptee has is the orphan hojuk and this document isolates the adoptee from the Korean society in a dead end loop made by the adoption agencies.
This version stays in Korea as a Korean citizen
This version is send out of Korea as an adoptee
When agencies back ground information are the same as other adoptees...
All people are born under different circumstances. Ask your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues and people around you!
However, for a large group of adoptees, this is not the case! They have exactly the same background information - as if it were one and the same person.
This is detailed information that appears in the adoptees' documents, so if an adoptee sits with them alone and looks at them, it gives the impression that the information must be correct.
Most adoptees grow up living with the information they have is the way it is... Until the adoptees start showing their background information to each other and comparing the documents they thought were unique to just them self.
If they ask the Korean adoption agencies for documentation, they admit that the information is wrong and is just made up for the sake of the adoption process.
The question for the many adoptees is, where do they come from? They were not born on the plane to the receiving country, so what happened? This is one of the many questions that adoptees have asked the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission because the adoption agencies are keeping the real information secret!
Read about the admissions of falsification of documents. Read more about the KSS Namkwang scam.
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Radio program in Danish
How does it feel to find out, that you are in fact a stolen Korean child?
Television documentary from SBS in Korean
Presentation from Danish Radio:
"In the autumn of last year, Mia Lee finds out that everything she has been told about her adoption is a lie. She grew up in the countryside outside Ringsted with the story that her biological parents gave her away voluntarily - to give her a better life. That's what her adoption papers say. But when she finds her biological parents this fall, after years of searching, she finds out that the doctors removed her shortly after birth and told her mother she was dead . Mia Lee is just one of the many adoptees from South Korea who have found out that she was adopted on the wrong basis. And after pressure from the Danish organization Danish Korean Rights Group, the South Korean government has now agreed to launch an investigation .reboot today about Mia Lee's search for her own story.
In Horisont you can see more about the adoption scandal (sent 24 January 2023).
Host: Anna Ingrisch."
The adoption agencies claim, that eveything was done the right way - but where are all the consents for adoption?
This question and many other questions adoptees from all over the world ask the adoption agency Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korea Social Service, Inc.!
Here you can read the answers from the adoption companies Holts Children's Services, Inc. and Korea Social Service, Inc.
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This is the list of documents that the adoption company Holt Children's Services, Inc. themselves say that they have about each of the adopted.
But when the adoptees ask for these documents, the answer is typically a non-answer:
"Holt previously sent your papers and now we are sending them again"
"Holt knows nothing about the documents being asked for"
Or Holt simply does not correspond to the adopted!
MEET BILL
In 1976 I was seven years old. I lived in a remote rice farming village with my parents and siblings near Daejeon in Korea. After the harvest my mother and I journeyed by bus to the city to sell produce at the outdoor market. While we were in the city,
I was taken by a strange man who took me to an apartment in the city. Until then I had lived in a rural village with no plumbing or electricity. It was my first time seeing an apartment, modern furniture, refrigerator, etc.
The man who took me left me at the apartment with a man and woman. The next day the man returned and took me to Sungshil Children's Home in Daejeon City. He took me to the orphanage and left me there.
By this time I was severely traumatized and could not talk. All I could do was to cry for my mother. I believe the man sold me to the orphanage. I further believe he made up a false name and birth date for me.
Soon, I was transferred to an orphanage run by Holt. In violation of existing laws banning single parent adoptions, I was adopted to an American businessman. He was never married then it since. He took me home from the orphanage on Dec. 13, 1976. My adoption to the US was not a good experience. Approximately five years ago, I read my adoption file for the first time.
"I am not seeking any form of retribution or recompense. I just want to know if there is someone out there who misses me as much as I miss them"
"As an adoptee, I have suffered so much mental and psychological anguish."
That's when I realized that there were many inconsistencies. The first was that my file says I was adopted on February 1977.
I realized that Holt Children's Services allowed my adoptive father to take me home almost the months before officially filing my papers.
The second problem I saw was that I had told my father as a child that I was in two orphanages, but he kept denying it.
"That is when I realized the depth of the lies that surround my adoption."
The third thing is that my file says there is no one information on my mother. However, when I began emailing Holt, they told me first that there is no information on my mother.
As I pressed the question, the case worker said my mother was a single woman who lived in the city and worked as a seamstress.
She was too poor to take care of me so she abandoned me at the orphanage.
That is when I realized the depth of the lies that surround my adoption. I am trying to tell my story to anyone who will listen to me. For almost the entirety of my life I tried to deny, suppress or flat out lie about my desire to find my birth family.
As an adoptee, I have suffered so much mental and psychological anguish. It's even more intense when I consider that my suffering is caused by the design of those who thought so little of the value of a child's life.
I am not seeking any form of retribution or recompense. I just want to know if there is someone out there who misses me as much as I miss them. I hope you can either help me or point me to someone who may be able to help.
These were the dying father's last words to Kyung Sook Jung's 10 year older Korean sister. The dying father's last wish was granted 13 years later when the biological family was reunited, and the methods of the adoption agency Holt Childrens Services were revealed.
In 1987 her dying fathers last wish was granted. Kyung Sook Jung came to South Korea for the first time. She visited her father's grave in 2017 to pay her respects to the father who had sought her and kept her in his heart until the very end.
"When I stood in front of my father's and mother’s grave, I felt like my whole life was one big lie. I felt like I had been made a commodity for Holt to make a profit", Kyung Sook Jung tells.
Kyung Sook Jung's adoption process has been very traumatizing for her. Today she has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) by medical doctors in Norway related to her adoption process.
"I have the same nightmare over and over again, where I dream that I am sitting on a bench with other children and scream that I want to go home", Kyung Sook Jung tells.
Kyung Sook Jung's post-traumatic stress syndrome doesn't just show up when she's sleeping.
"In everyday life, I can experience being completely paralyzed. I have the doctors' word that this and my repeated nightmares are due to PTSD as a direct result of the adoption", Kyung Sook Jung explains.
Kyung Sook Jung has tried to cancel the adoption from her side. But that is not easy. Kyung Sook Jung's life as an adoptee has not been the happy life that is stated in the brochures from Holt that "Adoption Is Love".
With her participation in DKRG's case at South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Kyung Sook Jung demands restitution and restoration.
"When I stood in front of my father's and mother’s grave, I felt like my whole life was one big lie"
"In everyday life, I can experience being completely paralyzed. I have the doctors' word that this and my repeated nightmares are due to PTSD as a direct result of the adoption"
Kyung Sook Jung was adopted from South Korea to Norway in 1970 via the adoption agency Holt Childrens Services Inc. Kyung Sook Jung is one of the adoptees who have joined the Danish Korean Rights Group's (DKRG) request to South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a thorough investigation into overseas adoption from South Korea regarding violations of human rights and suspected fraud and forgery in the adoption process.
DKRG has opened for all adoptees outside of Denmark who are adopted from Holt and KSS. In September, DKRG goes back to South Korea again to hand over more Danish cases and cases from the rest of the world to present to the Commission.
"I would very much like to join your case, since I know I was wrongfully taken and shipped to Norway", with these words 53-year-old Kyung Sook Jung contacts the Danish Korean Rights Group to announce her participation.
From Kyung Sook Jung's adoption documents, it appears that she is an orphan. She can present an orphan Ho Juk (호적) where she is the head of the family. From her adoption documents it appears that she was born in 1968.
Both pieces of information are not correct as many other pieces of information from Holt. Kyung Sook Jung was not an orphan, and she was born in 1969 and not in 1968.
The adoption was also not voluntary on the part of the family. Here is Kyung Sook Jung's real story:
Kyung Sook Jung is born in 1969. Her mother dies soon after of illness, leaving her and her 3 older Korean siblings to the care of the father. Kyung Sook Jung falls seriously ill shortly after her mother's death, and the father goes to the local authorities for help.
Kyung Sook Jung is hospitalized and this is the last time the father sees Kyung Sook Jung. The father never got to see Kyung Sook Jung again.
What Kyung Sook Jung’s father didn’t know, was that she were put up for overseas adoption via the hospital's contacts with the adoption agency Holt, and the father never succeeded in getting Kyung Sook Jung back. In 1970, Kyung Sook Jung arrives to Norway without her father's knowledge, to a Norwegian adoptive family.
The father dies of illness in 1974. The father's last words to Kyung Sook Jung's 10-year-old sister are that the sister must promise to find Kyung Sook Jung so that the three sisters can take care of each other when the father is gone.
The loss of Kyung Sook Jung had affected her father greatly. In 1987, she reunited with her South Korean biological family. From her older sister, she has learned that in the intervening years until his death, the father searched for Kyung Sook Jung in all the orphanages in the area in South Korea.
Kyung Sook Jung's South Korean family has told her that they had in no way imagined that she was adopted out of the country to Norway, but that they had always believed that Kyung Sook Jung was somewhere in South Korea; but the truth would turn out to be different
Last dying words: "Promise me to find Kyung Sook so you sisters take care of each other"
Understand the ethnic cleansing on "mixed-race" children
Definition(s)
"Rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group, which is contrary to international law"
Source(s)
Source: 50 Decades of SWS
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Deportation lists i numbers showing "White, Negro and Others" of mixed-race children.
Download logos and press photos (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
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Co-founder, DKRG
TRC co-signer and steering group, DKRG
Health science researcher and steering group, DKRG
Co-founder, DKRG
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Korean National Human Rights Commission study on adoptions from Korea
Video from the conference: Courtesy of Kim Sun Ju, member of Korean Parliament
Left sound channel is Korean. Right sound channel is English
In Spring 2022 the Korean National Human Rights Commission initiated a study into adoptions from Korea.
To date the study is the largest scientific study on human rights abuses in overseas adoption.
The study is made by Korean scholars and experts.
The study was presented in 2023 at Korean National Assembly.
Follow up scientific articles are to be made, and will be read here as they are published.
Number of applications from adoptees
334
(delivered cases to date)
2
(Main documents from DKRG)
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