A 72 year old South Korean mother, Choi Young-ja, has filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against the South Korean government and its largest adoption agency, Holt Children’s Services, accusing them of systemic negligence in the forced separation from her toddler son, who was sent to Norway without her knowledge or consent.
Choi spent nearly 50 years searching for her son before they were finally reunited in 2023 in an emotional encounter that captured global attention. Her legal battle now seeks damages and accountability, highlighting the deep wounds caused by South Korea’s overseas adoption practices a program long criticized for fraud and abuse.
Her story, first exposed in an Associated Press investigation and featured by PBS’s Frontline, comes as pressure mounts on South Korea to reckon with its past. In March, the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a landmark report condemning the foreign adoption system. It held the government accountable for aggressively promoting international adoptions during military rule, often without proper oversight or consent.
The commission revealed that thousands of children were needlessly separated from their families. In many cases, living parents were misled or their children were falsely classified as orphans some even kidnapped to streamline adoption to the West. Since the 1950s, around 200,000 South Korean children have been adopted abroad, mostly to North America and Europe.
Choi’s case follows a similar lawsuit by 70-year-old Han Tae-soon, who is also suing the government and Holt Children’s Services after her daughter was abducted at age four in 1976 and adopted to the United States shortly after.
These legal actions underscore a growing movement demanding truth, justice, and reparations for the broken families left behind by South Korea’s adoption legacy.
