FRONTLINE and The AP examine fraud and abuse allegations in South Korea’s historic foreign adoption boom.
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About 200,000 people around the world were adopted out of South Korea to Western countries over the course of the past seven decades in what is believed to be the largest population of adoptees out of any country. More than half of those adopted ended up in the United States.
But as the documentary, “South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning,†from FRONTLINE and The Associated Press explores, a growing number of adoptees have returned to South Korea as adults only to discover that what they’d been told about their origins was not true.
The film draws on years of reporting, thousands of pages of documents — some of which had never been made public before — and interviews with those who worked in adoption agencies, officials from South Korea and abroad, and more than 80 adoptees who gave powerful firsthand accounts.
“What do you do when you find out your origin story is marked with grievous injustice?†one adoptee asks in the film.
The reporters also spoke to officials from some of the adoption agencies, who have denied systemic wrongdoing. They interviewed a former senior official from an adoption agency who stressed that the overall goal was to find homes for children who would otherwise have grown up in orphanages.
“South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning†is a FRONTLINE production with Maxine Productions and Sony Pictures Television – Nonfiction (SPTNF) in association with The Associated Press. The writer, producer and director is Maxine Productions’ Lora Moftah. The reporters are Kim Tong-hyung and Claire Galofaro. The senior producer is Nina Chaudry. The executive producer of Maxine Productions is Mary Robertson. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
Explore additional reporting on “South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning†on our website:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/south-koreas-adoption-reckoning/
#Documentary #Adoptions #SouthKorea
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Prologue
03:24 – Adoptees from South Korea Search for Their Roots
10:26 – The History of South Korea’s Foreign Adoption Policy
22:57 – A Korean Adoptee Reveals the Hardships She Faced in Childhood
28:08 – South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Discusses Investigation of Foreign Adoptions
31:03 – Inside an Agency That Facilitated Adoptions of Children from South Korea
36:28 – Former U.S. Ambassador Discusses How the U.S. Approached Adoptions from South Korea
42:43 – Former South Korean Adoption Worker On Foreign Adoptions At One Agency
46:17 – How Some Korean Adoptees’ Adoption Papers Distorted Their Origins
56:45 – How South Korean Hospitals and Maternity Homes Became a Key Source of Children For Adoption
01:08:13 – South Korea’s Late 1980s Audit Reveals Problems in the Country’s Adoption System
01:15:25 – What Korean Adoptees Want: Answers & Accountability
01:22:19 – Credits
1:11:52 she’s not opening her mind to clear opportunities for corrupt baby intakes. So frustrating.
As a Korean, koreans can be savauge
Thank you for your reporting. This is heartbreaking. I hope this exposure has helped shame those entities and governing bodies. I hope the money is getting followed and that genetic genealogy can expedite whatever few years if any are left for these families.
So sad 😢
"Your son is in critical condition and could die any moment… but send him to this adoption agency and he could get adopted and the surgeries he needs" girl what? Who was actually profiting off this human trafficking? There's no way people were ready to disrupt families for nothing, who got paid and how much did they make, and where are they now? If these adoption agencies worked so closely with Korean and Foreign Governments I have a SNEAKING suspicion of who had money and who profited. This is so gross… so many families manipulated… "Oh sorry we did what was in our job description" you know who also said that in war times? That's CRAZY.
This representative from HOLT is Delusional and Brainwashed
I find it so sad that Frank didn’t want to be on camera. It’s extremely important that everyone make it a point to show the devastation that came from heartless, greedy bureaucrats. To see the horrendous effects their decisions had on innocent men and women. I couldn’t help but be annoyed by Frank’s desire for anonymity. IMO it was a slap in the face of his mother’s grief and suffering.
I have never felt the urge to seek my birth parents because my records state that they were very young and I was born out of wedlock, then voluntarily given up at the hospital. It may be true. But I have been so fortunate and privileged to live a wonderful life with a wonderful adoptive family. I have so much. Whether they gave me up voluntarily or not, I wish I could tell them that I am doing well and that I hope they never worry about me.
I think it is important for these stories to come to light. But if they watch programs that highlight the traumatic experiences some transnational adoptees have suffered, I would not want them to fear that has happened to me. I wonder if I should try to find them.
The country was a mess during the war and afterward. Parents & the government were desperate and did their best to save children during desperate times. I understand the adoptees feeling like they missed out on their culture & family connections but be thankful that you all lived very privileged lives. Most Korean adoptees lived better lives than most American kids that were raised with their own parents. To be rescued from a war torn country & be adopted by wealthy parents- that is the dream for many children globally. These days, everyone is in a victim competition- its ridiculous. They should ask the adoptees if they would prefer to grow up starving & suffering in their birth country.
I feel bad for Choi.
This is sad . No matter what people say , Korea is a corrupt country . Look at how many presidents were arrested and thrown in prison, including until the recent 3. It’s all hidden behind K-pop and all the façade for beauty and plastic surgery… shame on these people
It is insidious America wants kids so they just take them same as slavery then lie about it gross
A shameful history of Korea !!!
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The lady from Holt sure does pass the buck, doesn't she?!
I was adopted through Holt out of Chicago. Any lawyer recommendations?
That Holt lady is delusional by choice.
One way the Korean government could make reparations for their crimes is by mandating that all Koreans submit a DNA sample, and by facilitating the reuniting of these families through the information they collect. It is the height of irony that the country with the lowest birthrate on earth should have systematically enacted national policies to get rid of so many Korean children. They have no right to wring their hands about it now.
That final scene violently tore through my chest, ripped out my heart and proceeded to beat me senseless with it until I was nothing but yet another mystery stain on my carpet! Oh my God, I had not at all been prepared for that! I am still shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. I realize that I am most definitely not the most worthy child of God – heck, I'm probably not even on his backup list – but this prayer isn't for me. Rather, it is for Frank's mother. I beg God and the Heavens and universe to please, PLEASE grant that poor, dear woman a few more years of good health so that she and her baby may spend at least some meaningful time together after having been robbed of so much for so long. I want this more than anything. I will happily even give some of my years to her if necessary. I would be honored to. She deserves this moment of happiness in her life. Please, God. Please.
I lived in South Korea for a short time in 1976. Many mixed race children were treated badly and were just assumed to be the children of prostitutes. They were better off being adopted.
incredible documentary
😢😢😮 I've known of the history of this area since the Russian Japanese war of 1904. This has started to happen returning the American Korean war and then in Vietnam this is really eye-opening and I remember someone 35 years ago😢
I really enjoyed this video and all of the work it took to make this. I am appreciative that it's bringing awareness to this historic happening rather than sugar coating it. That lady who was adopted through Holt and then later became apart of Holt is so delusional. I almost had to skip all of the parts where you guys talk to her. If only she would see the other side without having to be so against it. What you tell her and bring to her attention is the true and she just doesn't want to believe it.
41:21 this is insane. “There’s good social workers and bad social workers†as if that’s a normal thing to say when talking about the livelihood of children and their families. The disconnect and refusal to look at the facts is very blatantly obvious and disgusting
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41:05 This lady is AWFUL! The "a few bad apples" excuse is outrageous!
My husband was adopted to the US from South Korea through Holt, and we would like to know more. Where do we even start? It is so hard to find who or what organization to reach out to. We tried the Korean organization mentioned in this documentary, but no response.