According to The Korea Herald, “The South Korean government is preparing to end overseas adoptions by 2029, shifting responsibility for adoption from private agencies to the state in a move officials say is aimed at strengthening child protection.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday it has approved a five-year child welfare blueprint, formally titled the Third Basic Plan for Child Policy, which prioritizes domestic adoption and charts a gradual end to overseas adoptions. The plan was endorsed by a government coordination committee chaired by the prime minister.
The scheme anchors the child welfare agenda of President Lee Jae Myung, who has described Korea’s history of overseas adoption as a national failure.”
Some 200,000 children have been adopted from South Korea since the mid-1950’s, to the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. The numbers of international adoptions generally have declined significantly in recent years; South Korea is no exception. In addition, South Korea has been under scrutiny for its historic adoption practices.
Per PBS, the U.N. played a role in this newest development: “United Nations investigators voiced ‘serious concern’ over what they described as Seoul’s failure to ensure truth-finding and reparations for widespread human rights violations tied to decades of mass overseas adoptions.
The announcement Friday came hours after the United Nations human rights office released South Korea’s response to investigators urging Seoul to spell out concrete plans to address the grievances of adoptees sent abroad with falsified records or abused by foreign parents.”
South Korea will phase out foreign adoptions over a five-year period, aiming to reach zero by 2029 at the latest as it tightens welfare policies for children in need of care,’ Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Seuran said during a briefing.
South Korea approved foreign adoptions of 24 children in 2025, down from around 2,000 in 2005 and an annual average of more than 6,000 during the 1980s.”
Per The Korea Herald, the Korean government has significant policies planned as adoptions end: “The plan also overhauls foster care, moving child placements under full state management and recognizing foster families as a formal family category with expanded legal authority.
Provincial governments will be required to regularly assess foster homes, adoptive families and child care facilities, while support for reunification with biological families will be expanded.
In response to repeated child abuse deaths, the government will establish a special review body to conduct in depth analyses of fatal cases and is considering a broader system to examine the causes of all child deaths.
Beyond adoption, the plan broadens social support. Child allowances will be gradually extended to children under 13 by 2030, with additional payments for nonmetropolitan and depopulating regions.
The government also plans to introduce short-term parental leave, expand overnight community child care and broaden vaccination coverage.”
Many countries (Guatemala, Ethiopia, Russia, China, Romania, more) have ended or drastically restricted international adoptions, sometimes with the urging of the United Nations. The reasons often involve fraud, corruption, and abuse of adoptees.
The restrictions or endings do not mean that there are no longer children in need of families, safety, education, and medical care. Given the numbers of Korean adoptees and adoptive families, the substantive advocacy of Korean adoptees, and the fact the United Nations has weighed in, I am hopeful that there will be oversight given to the new policies for vulnerable children in Korea, which include domestic adoption.
Adoptive parents can (and should) contribute to the needs of the children, even as programs close. In the case of South Korea, KUMFA (Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association) might be of interest. There are many organizations doing hard work to help children, and they deserve support. Also, Adoptees for Justice have been promoting justice in adoptee, immigrant, racial, and social justice spaces for years, particularly around the deportation of Korean and other international adoptees.
