Investigating South Korea's Fake Orphans and Sham Adoptions | Foreign Correspondent

MAZOE FORD: I'm in Seoul, one of the most dynamic cities in Asia. It's ultra modern, yet deeply traditional. When you think about what South Korea is known for around the world, you think electronics, cars, K-pop music, and food. But not so long ago, one of this country's biggest exports was children. In the decades since the end of the Korean War, 200,000 South Korean children have been adopted to North America, Europe and Australia. As adults, many are making their way back. I'm Nicholas Green... My name is Boonyoung Han... My name is Jeeyung and... My name is Peter Moller... My name is Emma Goodman... I'm Samara... My name is Julien... My name is Insu. I was adopted from Korea to Massachusetts as a baby. They're trying to find their birth families... This is my life. It's my identity. I've been looking for 20 years. Please, give me the truth. ..and connect with a country they've never really known. The language has been challenging. In the process, Korean adoptees have been meeting each other, comparing stories, and some are discovering alarming patterns. This is just a tiny bit of the evidence. There are allegations of adoption documents falsified, identities duplicated, and even children stolen. We were pretty much sold for profit. Human trafficking? That's... Yeah, that's absolutely what I think. Now hundreds of adoptees from around the world are demanding answers. I think it's so important for people to know, "Where do I come from?" We are adults, and we have the right to know. At the busy Gwangjang Market in the centre of Seoul, Mary Bowers is just another face in the crowd. And that's the way she likes it. How do you find living here, compared with the United States? It's easier. OK. It's much easier. Coming back to Korea, everybody looks like me. I feel like my entire body has relaxed. Mary was adopted to America in 1982 as a baby. In 2020, she wondered what it would be like to live in South Korea, so she took the plunge and moved to Seoul. What's your favourite thing about Korea so far? This sounds incredibly strange... My...my credit card. (LAUGHS) What do you mean by that? Because...because... ..it was the first thing that I had that had my name, like, my Korean name, that was not an adoption paper. It's tangible. So, every time you use that credit card, do you have a sense of, "This is me"? Yes. Yeah. Until I get the bill, and then I'm like, "I don't know if I'm sure it's me anymore, but..." I think we all feel like that. (LAUGHS) Lots of flavour. A little bit salty. Pretty crispy. It's very good. These are just right. Mary's adoptive parents were told that her birth mother was too poor to raise her. My adoptive mom, um, she really thought she was doing something altruistic. But, once in Seoul, Mary tried to find out more information from her adoption agency, and what she was told did not add up. The story that my adoptive parents were given was completely false. How do you know that? Um, because in my adoption papers, there's conflicting information. So, all of the paperwork that was required by US immigration classifies me as an orphan. No record of my parents. But also, in that same file, in the English translation, there are two people identified as my parents. Mary went to her adoption agency, Eastern Social Welfare Society, several times for an explanation, but they've never been able to provide one. I thought that I had the pieces. I really thought... ..I had all the pieces. So, then, to find out, "Wait a minute, "none of that was ever true," not only do I have to undo a lot of the puzzle that I made, now I have to find the pieces that actually belong there. Adoptions from South Korea began at the end of the Korean War. Following the armistice in 1953, the country's orphanages were full of thousands of war orphans and babies fathered by foreign soldiers. Korea's leaders saw this as a social welfare problem and the children were sent abroad. FILM NARRATOR: 12 orphans are leaving for adoption in the US. Their benefactor, Harry Holt of Oregon. Interest surged after Harry and Bertha Holt, a Christian couple from the US, adopted eight babies in 1955. The Holts then set up what would become South Korea's largest adoption agency. One orphan goes to a Corpus Christi, Texas, family, another to a home in Benton Harbor, Michigan. In the following decades, more agencies were set up and international adoption became a lucrative business. Unwed mothers were shamed into handing over their newborns, and poor families had little choice. Adoption peaked in 1985, with an average of 24 children a day sent abroad. The turning point came during the Seoul Olympics, when the world's media took notice, describing babies as Korea's primary export. Numbers have fallen most years ever since. WOMAN: Many people ask me, "Why do you go to Korea?" I came here both for the birth search, but mainly for the learning the Korean culture - just to be here, have a daily life. On a Saturday morning on the outskirts of Seoul. Danish adoptee Ahn Andersen has come to her Korean drumming class. Ahn was adopted to Denmark as a two-year-old in 1970 but moved back here a year ago. What if I had stayed in Korea? What kind of life would I have had? And I can see now that... ..yeah, this is maybe the kind of life I would have had. Of course, I'm interested to find my Korean family because I have a daughter and, for her, it's also very natural to know her Korean ancestors. I've come to find out how Ahn's search is going. She knows time is running out to find her family. I'm 55 now, so, if my parents are... ..are at least 15, 20 years older, so they are at least in their 70s. Of course, I cannot wait 20 more years, and even...they might have passed already. So, yes, time is running out. Ahn believes the answers are held with her adoption agency, Holt Children's Services. How long have you been searching for your identity? Yeah, so, this May, I have been searching 20 years. My first travel to Korea was in 2004, and I went to Holt agency and they didn't give me any information. How many times have you tried? I went to the Holt office... ..I think five or six times, maybe seven, and they always... ..said, "Your file is empty," because my adoption file says no record for mother and father's name, so they always just refer... it's empty. Did they find me on the street? If they did, then the police should have made a lot of documentation. If I was relinquished, then the father and mother should sign papers. If this was a legal adoption, they should have those documents. But there's no paper. So, did the child just fall down from the heaven? Holt still has a large presence in South Korea. Ahn had pretty much given up on getting any more information out of her adoption agency, but she asked if we could try on her behalf one last time. Over the past three weeks, I've sent them two letters and my Korean colleague has called them at least five times and we've had no response. So I've got my letter again, and we're going to try in person. I don't have too high expectations, but, uh, yeah, I hope they will, uh, show it to me. But who knows? Let's see what happens. Inside, staff won't show Ahn her file today, but say she can come back tomorrow. They tell me I won't be allowed to join her because I'm a journalist, and they won't do an interview. That was very important that it should be today, not tomorrow, because tomorrow they will just take out the important stuff. That's why we had to do it today. I've been there six times before like this, and they prepare exactly what they want to show. No, it's just a waste of time - their time, our time. Mm. It's ridiculous. You fucking don't do anything for us. The next morning, we returned to Holt for another go. Oh... We talked for nearly two hours, so she took the time. But it was the same - nothing. Were you allowed to look at anything? Uh, I could see my papers, and then some of them were not the originals. So, I said, "Where are the originals?" "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. "So they got lost. So this... And we are so sorry." She said that at least 20 times - "I'm so sorry." She's not. I said, "No, you're not. "That's your work. This is my life." "This is my story. This is my identity. "I've been looking for 20 years. "Please, give me the truth." As adults, many adoptees seek each other out. At this meet-up, there are adoptees from around the world. It's an opportunity to connect and compare notes as they try to uncover their past. Peter Moller was adopted to Denmark in 1974. Yeah. Yeah. The names are totally different. Totally different. We will help you in any way we can. Peter's been central to exposing Korea's adoption practices. A couple of years ago, each and every one, we were alone in the search for our documents. Coming together, that makes us stronger. And now we want to know the real background story. Later, I meet up with Peter outside Korea's National Assembly. We are often invited by politicians to come and give our view on things. I've been here, I think, 13 or 14 times. Many...many people ask, "You have had a good life in Denmark. "Why don't you just, say... "..forget about the things?" And I think, I have had a good life in Denmark, but having a good life has nothing to do with the violations of your human rights. After finding inconsistencies in his own adoption file, Peter rallied other Danish adoptees to scrutinise theirs. We collected all the stories, and then we decided to go to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Korea, and we made a formal complaint to the Commission in the hope that they would investigate the case. They started with 51 Danish cases. Then, word spread. They eventually submitted 375 cases from adoptees in 11 countries. In the hills behind downtown Seoul, Peter Moller works from the offices of adoptee NGO KoRoot. He shows me the work they've been doing. This is just a tiny bit of the evidence we have brought to the Commission. Of the hundreds of cases Peter's now seen, all are listed as orphans. But the adoptees question this. They are both orphans on paper, but their families, biological families, they are described in the documents. And that is a strange thing. You can't be an orphan and have your parents described in your documents at the same time. And in some cases here, they have even found their biological parents. So, when they reunite with their families, they learn the truth. Yes. The next thing is the similarity. All the documents, all the cases here, they have exactly the same description. In one city, at least 52 children were given identical backstories - they were abandoned with a note with their name and birth date. This one too - "Known by the paper-slip "which was found in her clothing." Exactly. Yes. And here - "Known by the paper-slip which was..." "Found in her clothing." That's a lot of missing children with a paper-slip in their clothing, isn't it? Exactly. So, imagine that, in the 1970s in Pusan - the street should literally be scattered with baskets with children. What it actually tells us is that the agencies, they use templates for stories. There's also an admission from one adoption agency that it falsified documents. The adoption agency actually writes that everything was made up just for adoption. So, this document has been produced only to get the child overseas. And we have multiple letters like these. Peter says he feels deeply for adoptive parents, who he thinks have been wronged, too. My mother, she gets very sorry. Uh, one of the days she said to me, "Peter, I want to say I'm sorry, because I didn't know this." I said, "Of course you didn't know this. "And this is not your fault." This is made by greedy people who wanted money and they were literally selling children by doing this. Which authorities would have seen these documents before the child was adopted? Ministry of Justice - they have made all the official registrations of the children. And then you have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - they stamp all the permissions to exit the country. Do you think governments right around the world would have been able to see these patterns? Yes. Uh, if... Of course. Yes, definitely. I don't understand how a society can allow this for happening. Why didn't anyone say anything? South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is tasked with investigating historical human rights violations in this country. It's heard the adoptees' voices and has taken on their cases. Amy Jung is lead investigator for the team looking into adoptions. Have the adoption agencies been cooperating with you? The Commission has until next year to deliver its findings. Foreign Correspondent made several requests for interviews with Holt and Eastern, but we received no responses. The Government said it's awaiting the Commission's findings and has begun to amend adoption laws. It's not just adoptees affected. There are also birth mothers searching for answers. Han Tae Soon is one of them. She's a vocal advocate for birth mothers and adoptees. Today, my colleague, Soo, and I have been invited to lunch at her home. (ALL CONVERSE IN KOREAN) These are for you. Thank you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12... 13 different dishes. More is to come. More?! It smells so good. Let's go! Eating! (LAUGHS) Over lunch, our conversation turns to family. How many children do you have? (SOO TRANSLATES) On May 9, 1975, Han Tae Soon's daughter disappeared from the front yard of their home. How long did you look for her? 44 years. You never stopped looking. Wow. (SNIFFS) She must have been so scared. She kept saying, "Please look for my mother," and they said that, "You are abandoned." (SNIFFS AND SIGHS) (BOTH EXCLAIM) They finally reunited in 2019... ..thanks to a DNA match. The agency that handled the adoption was Holt. Han Tae Soon is now taking legal action against Holt, and the Government. Ahn has also tried DNA testing, but has only found distant relatives. Today we're joining her as she tries something new - an appeal on a Korean radio show. I hope that somebody from my family will recognise me or recognise my story. (UP-BEAT MUSICAL STING PLAYS) Ahn is going on the air with Professor Lee Keon-Su, a former Missing Persons Unit detective, who's taking a look at her case. The only thing we can rely on is DNA. So, we need the Koreans to make DNA tests because we cannot rely on the papers. We cannot rely on the agencies. But her strongest message is for her family. I would like to say to them that I'm sad that I was sent abroad to Denmark, but I'm not angry. But I don't know if they gave me up or if I was kidnapped or... I don't know my story. So, I think it's... it's heartbreaking not... ..to be 50 years and not know. MARY BOWERS: To me, coming to Korea was about finding the things that do actually matter, that are important, which is, you know, family and truth and identity. And, so, even though it's been an adjustment, it's been worth it so far. To find other people who have had similar experiences and to have my experience validated as, "Wait, this happened to me, too. "You're not losing your mind. You're not going crazy..." Like, this is something that was pervasive. With no answers coming from her agency, Eastern, Mary turned to DNA as well. She did seven different tests. MARY BOWERS: As exhausting as that process has been, it's been worth it so far. Because? Uh... So... Um, after all of that, um... ..I found my...my baby brother. The DNA testing led you to a brother? A 100% DNA match. So, we are not half siblings. We have exactly the same parents. Um... Yeah. Hey! Chase was also adopted to America as a baby. They met over a video call last year and now chat regularly. What have you been up to? How's work? Just been playing some online games with friends. I got the side by sides, but they rotate. They've compared documents and found even more discrepancies. His story, we know, is 100% false, or I would not exist. The story his adoptive parents were given was that he was abandoned also by a single mother, um, who did not even know who our father was. She apparently went to a bar, according to his documents. I am 23 years older than my brother. That is a very long one-night stand. It's not...it's not possible. What's your theory? I think maybe, initially, the years immediately after the Korean War, there may have been humanitarian need for children to find families. But as time went on, the adoption agencies found there was significant money that people were willing to pay to adopt a child. And, so, um, we were pretty much sold for a profit. Human trafficking? That's... Yeah, that's absolutely what I think. Yes. Next year, the South Korean Government is expected to ratify an international convention on intercountry adoption, which makes the practice a last resort. Any cases would be managed by government, not private adoption agencies. Adoptee advocates hope the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will lead to more change. MARY BOWERS: I would hope to see historical acknowledgement of what happened, an official apology from the government, and then some kind of restitution for what happened. PETER MOLLER: There's a strong feeling among adoptees in Denmark, all over the world, that now we are adults, so we will try to do for Korean children today what no-one did for us. So, I hope that the Commission investigation will lead to a stop for adoptions from South Korea. As the adoptees here wait for the Commission's findings, they're getting on with their lives. Mary and fellow adoptee Nick are enjoying a perfect Sunday in Seoul. Chicken and beer by the Han River. It is a little hot, which is weird. We've had so much strange, like, back and forth weather. Starting to sizzle. The adoptee community here is growing and momentum for their cause is building. For me, I think I'm more of a late-comer to the game. So, I moved here eight or nine months ago, and I know that there have been adoptees that have lived here for a few to like, even up to 10 or 15 years. MARY BOWERS: It's definitely been a roller coaster. Like, I have good days where it's, like, I feel like I have... I've learned a lot and I've made lots of connections and I feel pretty great. Um, there's also days where I'm just, like, flat on the floor, I can't breathe, I can't move, I can't handle anything and... But every day and every new piece of information is one step closer to completing the puzzle. So, yeah, your brother. That's exciting. I'm excited for you. Yeah! So... That's a big thing. I'm going to meet him in person in June for the first time, and his favourite food is fried chicken and I was like, "Like, he's definitely mine." (LAUGHS) Jjan. Jjan. (LAUGHTER AND CHATTER) Captions by Red Bee Media Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation