A South Korean adoptee needed answers about the past. She got them — just not the ones she wanted

All her life, Rebecca Kimmel was told she was abandoned. But the baby in her adoption file was not her.

Reality of Unwed Mothers – KUMFA

Adoptiekinderen vergeten hun moedertaal niet

Mensen die als baby geadopteerd zijn, vergeten hun oorspronkelijke moedertaal niet. Recent onderzoek van onder meer de Radboud Universiteit laat zien dat Koreaanse geadopteerden op latere leeftijd makkelijker Koreaans leren. Zelfs als ze bij de adoptie maar een paar maanden oud waren.

Korean adoptees share emotional journeys in new book 'In Our Own Words'

A total of 43 Korean-born adoptees who were sent overseas as children shared their challenging journeys in a recently published book titled 'In Our Own Words.'

Takeaways from AP’s story on the role of the West in widespread fraud with South Korean adoptions

Western governments ignored widespread fraud in South Korean adoptions and sometimes pressured the country to keep the kids coming, an investigation led by The Associated Press has found. Many Korean children adopted overseas have since realized their adoption paperwork was untrue, and their quest for accountability has spread to Western countries. Documents show that diplomats processed papers like an assembly line, despite evidence that agencies were bribing mothers and paying hospitals. The consequences are upending the global adoption industry. Some European countries have shut down adoptions, and the U.S. State Department said questions from AP prompted it try to piece together its history from archives. AP talked to more than 80 adoptees, in collaboration with Frontline (PBS).

South Korean adoptees question their past and ask how to find their families

Dozens of South Korean adoptees, many in tears, have responded to an investigation led by The Associated Press and documented by Frontline (PBS) last week on adoptions from South Korea. The investigation reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea’s foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s while there were huge Western demands for babies. They've faced missing paperwork, conflicting information and a type of “ancestral sorrow” over what happened. Agencies, DNA testing and online groups are some of ways adoptees can get assistance to learn more about their own families.

Photos: South Korea adoptees endure emotional searches for their birth families

They began a pilgrimage that thousands before them have done — a long flight to their motherland, South Korea, to undertake an emotional, often frustrating, sometimes devastating search for their birth families. These adoptees are among the 200,000 sent from South Korea to Western nations as children. Many have grown up, searched for their origin story and discovered that their adoption paperwork was inaccurate or fabricated. They have only breadcrumbs to go on: grainy baby photos, names of orphanages and adoption agencies, the towns where they were said to have been abandoned.

South Korean adoptees question their past and ask how to find their families

Dozens of South Korean adoptees, many in tears, have responded to an investigation led by The Associated Press and documented by Frontline (PBS) last week on adoptions from South Korea. The investigation reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea’s foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s while there were huge Western demands for babies. They've faced missing paperwork, conflicting information and a type of “ancestral sorrow” over what happened. Agencies, DNA testing and online groups are some of ways adoptees can get assistance to learn more about their own families.

South Korean woman sues government and adoption agency after her kidnapped daughter was sent abroad

A 70-year-old South Korean woman on Monday sued her government, an adoption agency, and an orphanage over the adoption of her daughter, who was sent to the United States in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at age four. The damage suit filed by Han Tae-soon, whose story was part of an Associated Press investigation published last month, could ignite further debate on the dubious child-gathering practices and widespread falsification of paperwork that tarnished Korea’s historic adoption program, which annually sent thousands of kids to the West during the 1970-80s.