_updates.jpg)
South Korea's government has vowed to end foreign adoptions of Korean children, amid concerns of human rights violations.
On Friday, December 26, the United Nations human rights office revealed the government's response to the probe over Seoul's failure to ensure justice tied to decades of mass overseas adoptions.
Previously, the UN urged South Korea to form a plan to address the severe concerns of adoptees with falsified records and those abused by foreign parents.
The issue had rarely been discussed at the UN level, even as South Korea faces growing pressure to confront widespread fraud and abuse that overshadowed its adoption programme, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s when it annually sent thousands of children to the West.
During Friday's briefing, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Seu-ran shared that the country 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.
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.
In the health ministry's response to the UN officials, Lee noted that adoptions were previously handled by private agencies who might've prioritised other interests over the child's well-being.
She added that since now the system is becoming part of the public framework, with a proper approval process, the country is forced to think if the international adoptions are a "necessary option".
UN investigators raised the adoption issue, along with enforced or involuntary disappearances and child abuse, with Seoul after months of communication with Kim Yooree.
The 52-year-old was sent to a French family in 1984 without her biological parents' consent, based on documents falsely describing her as an abandoned orphan.
Kim said she endured severe physical and sexual abuse by her adopters and petitioned the UN as part of a broader effort to seek accountability from governments and adoption agencies in South Korea and France.
