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Examine government responses to South Korean adoption fraud: state inquiries, formal apologies, agency shutdowns, and origin-search support across 5 nations.

A comprehensive guide to TRC Korea’s adoption inquiry examines key findings, victim rulings, state obligations, international responses, and research sources.

Korean adoptee shadow files refer to duplicate, unredacted, or confidential domestic records maintained internally by South Korean adoption agencies that were systematically withheld from foreign adoptive parents, overseas partner agencies, and adult adoptees. During the peak transnational adoption era (1970s–1990s), South Korea’s "Big Four" agencies—Holt Children’s Services, Social Welfare Society (SWS/KWS), Korea Social Service (KSS), and Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESW

Explore the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's findings on how private Korean agencies obtained fraudulent child relinquishments during the peak intercountry adoption decades.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Republic of Korea (TRC) (진실·화해를위한과거사정리위원회) is an independent, state-sanctioned fact-finding commission established under the Framework Act on Clearing Up Past Affairs for Truth and Reconciliation. Historically tasked with investigating civilian massacres surrounding the Korean War and state violence under authoritarian military regimes, the TRC’s mandate was expanded to include human rights violations within South Korea’s histori

A deep dive into South Korea’s Big Four adoption agencies—Holt, SWS, KSS, and ESWS. Learn how they operated, their current status, and cited research.