South Korea’s dark past as the West’s ‘baby farm’

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At least 170,000 children were adopted from South Korea by families overseas in the decades since fighting ended in the Korean war. Most of the adoptees ended up living with middle-class, mostly white parents in western Europe and the United States. But as some grew up and wanted to learn the circumstances behind their adoptions, they found that many of the stories on record were not true. Two adoptees and a South Korean birth mother recently shared their stories about how some biological parents were pressured to give away their children.
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[@VodeniMedved]

This also happened in ex-Yugoslavia, now Serbia. A bunch of babies were declared dead and sold to rich countries. Unfortunatly our country is still high corupted so no one is judged and prosecuted for this crime. There is a fear that the state itself made money from this and that people involved in still have political power today. This is a very sad story and the mothers that are still searching for missing children dont have any support whatsoever.

[@MohamedBadat-yp7xj]

You mean Kosovo

[@VodeniMedved]

@@MohamedBadat-yp7xj No. I was thinking of the cases that happened during the 80s in Belgrade. You can find many sources on the Internet related to this case. After your message, I checked whether similar cases had happened in Pristina, especially during the war period, but I didn't find any. If you have any accurate sources, please share them.

[@salj.5459]

@@VodeniMedvedWhat he meant is "Kosovo is Serbia"

[@Laura-LaFauve]

Thank you for sharing this. My daughter, born in the 80s, had a friend she made at daycare who was adopted from Korea. The other children would tease my daughter because her hair was so curly. They teased her friend because her hair was so straight. My daughter told me this gave them a different perspective to the teasing. They were able to discount it because, obviously, it was random. Both girls benefitted from this. But if they hadn't had their friendship, the situation would have been more difficult for each of them. Many of these people seem to have been isolated in places of little ethnic or racial diversity. Stolen and then made to feel foreign. It's so very sad.

[@worshipthecomedygodseoeunk4010]

the worst part about this is that we couldve been raised in more diverse areas with people who look like us or at least had more understanding of diverse experiences. western countries arent monoracial in big cities but rarely are we ever adopted to them. nearly every adoptee i met here in the states has moved to a bigger city like nyc or dc and reports being much happier. but they had to be traumatized in small rural monoracial towns where they were constantly dehumanized before being able to experience it. it leaves a mark on you. growing up, i was virtually invisible to people. people would literally avoid me, my peers wouldnt even pass papers out to me and then claimed they "forgot me". they'd say im just that asian girl. so no one can wonder now why i am moving to LA and living among other Koreans and asians.

[@SyndicateOperative]

It's ironic, because the people adopting these children think they're doing it out of philanthropy - helping children in awful situations lead proper lives with them filling the roles as their parents. They never quite comprehend that its just con-artists taking advantage of them.

[@earthlyworld4698]

They are also victims

[@irenelau-nj8jr]

This should be called " legal human trafficking" !! All the poor mama must be crying days & nights 😢

[@myjams7180]

​@@sabishii_tabibitoIt was legal because the (corrupt) governments allowed it to happen.

[@raymondc96]

Great content and great awareness. I hope you guys can keep up these great stories and spread more awareness to people around the world.

[@JadeWhite-xf9xq]

I never imagined something like this could have happened... My heart goes out for all of these people

[@Sjalabais]

Decent little docu, but two *massively important* angles are missing here: 1 - the overseas parents. They were obviously duped, but how do they handle, in many cases, outright losing their kids? That makes two sets of parents being left out in the rain. 2 - the role of churches. Here, you have a pastor doing their civil society duty, but, for starters, churches were massively involved in this scam - both in SK and in the receiving countries. There should be criminal persecution happening.

[@MonikaMueller]

Thank you for this information. I have a niece and nephew who were adopted from South Korea. The nephew died 2 months ago in an accident at work where he was officially in charge to take care in the company for all protection in the working process is well applied. I now think whether his deadly accident was not an unconscious suicide where he was dead in an instant. I am still uncertain whether I give this information to my sick sister who is the adoption mother. On the other side I remember that in 1988 I did not get a room in a hotel or guesthouse in Ecador's Quito. When I rang in the early morning at many such doors, all these doors opened and immediately fell close again. I had to leave the same day, since I did not get a room there. 6 years later by "coincidence" I came to speak in another country with a women from Quito. She told me that at that time Ecuadorians did not want - compared to Ecuadorians - tall women in their house since they were known to steal children for adoption in the USA.

[@iheartmykittieslots]

I really want to ask: so how much $ did the adoption agency made? Per person? Per gender? Per age? Infant or child?

[@mira-uf1ie]

Should be per infant/child.

[@janinevance9917]

The agencies in the US (the demand side of adoption) get paid $60,000 per child.

[@kimono6009]

I was adopted from SK in 83-84, at 2 years old. It was around 3k at that time

[@ramatfatai4850]

That is so sad

[@NancyCronk]

My heart goes out to these adoptees.

[@condorX2]

Western media will never show us this. It's always about how sanctions is doing to North Korea.

[@rodazi]

Not to in any way minimize what these particular adoptees have been through, but these practices are hardly limited to Korea. This is being perpetrated around the world, and has been for decades. Read "The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption" by Kathryn Joyce.

[@deekang6244]

I don’t believe anyone in the film said that the practice was limited to Korea. As a Korean adoptee, I can tell you that that part of this is the scale of it. So many countries involved, and perhaps one of the first times in history it was carried out on such a grand scale. Although the number of adoptees is quoted as 200,000 total children, there are many of us who believe the numbers are much higher, since private adoptions, etc. were being carried out as well. And, the platform changed. What began as a way to “rescue” mixed race children from a homogeneous society, turned into a money-making process that was streamlined to complete as many adoptions as possible. The complicity of the Korean government, sending out their own children to countries around the world without regard to family dynamics where children were literally stolen from their mothers, is staggering. In a country where it is said that children are much loved and valued. For me, the changing of the mission of international adoption without transparency is unacceptable. And the lies continue to this day. No one is trying to invalidate any other adoption practice, I sincerely believe we can only tell our own stories, and let others tell theirs. This film is completely about a segment of the international adoption community telling their own story. I would encourage you, if you feel strongly about this, to produce your own film about the adoption segment with which you are aligned so that their story may also be told. Thank you for the book recommendation.

[@Raghav_Modi]

Namaskar 🙏🙏🙏🙏 South Koreans are too rich for this now. This industry has moved to India. Each year, it is estimated that 25,000 couples visit India for surrogacy services. Wombs are rented for between $16,000 and $32,000 - a third of the price in USA 🙏🙏

[@misterbig9025]

We don't mind giving our daughters. We can keep on making until we get son.

[@pshiva2603]

Banned the India and West, Keep Korea Great Again 👍 🇰🇷🇰🇵🇰🇷🇰🇵🇰🇷🇰🇵🇰🇷🇰🇵🇰🇷🇰🇵🇰🇷🇰🇵🇰🇷

[@aaat4873]

@@pshiva2603 There's nothing great about trafficking human beings, assaulting women, bullying people and pretending to be developed! They didn't realize that some children would grow up and tell their stories. This is not helping the reputation of SK at all!

[@peterchung1286]

this is the flavor of modern day neo-colonialism and slavery

[@WWIIDaughter7]

Makes you wonder what really happened to the 2,000-2,500 children that disappeared from the Laihana fires in Hawaii. Children are just another commodity to those who have the privilege of never having to account for their crimes.

[@salj.5459]

Elite p€d0s

[@rodazi]

The thing about fabricating lurid lies out of thin air like this is that it takes almost no effort to do, yet they also take an exponentially higher amount of effort to refute

[@anaromello]

​@@rodaziwhat lies? The reality is that children in the US are a commodity to be bought and sold through the multi billion dollar child trafficking/adoption industry. Where have those children gone? The government won't talk about whether they're dead, how many are missing, there's a media blackout.

[@HKim0072]

@@rodazi That's some next level stupidity too. A little more than 100 people died in the Maui fires.

[@ambition112]

3:22: 🎥 A woman returns to her birth country to tell her story of being adopted from South Korea to Norway through video art and performance. 8:13: 👶 The video discusses the unethical practices of adoption agencies in South Korea, which involved sourcing babies from unmarried mothers and falsifying documents. 8:47: Adoption agencies would falsify papers and local governments would rubber stamp them without proper scrutiny. 9:06: Overseas adoptions became less common after 2011 when approvals from family courts became mandatory. 11:06: 🌍 A speaker shares their experience of being adopted from Korea and growing up in Sweden. 12:16: The speaker developed depression and had a strong desire to reunite with their Korean family. Recap by Tammy AI

[@earlscottchambers4280]

You are a blessing to all those around you!

[@Kiyoone]

If it was already a "Industry" in the past... imagine now... Heard that US had this adopting "chinese" fever for a while.. what happened to those kids I wonder? did they had a better life?

[@cfromnowhere]

I know at least one case in which the Chinese adoptee found herself still not legally naturalised when she was 17. Another was disabled due to birth defects and abused by their adoptive family after coming out as a transmasc person. 🤦‍♀

[@SpiritualBabe101]

Blessings 🙏

[@hydar1233]

My mother was adopted from South Korea, to Norway aswell.

[@billzander2875]

It needs to be said that some of these children were adopted because the Western family thought Korean kids were cute and exotic.

[@realchris]

I have a similiar experience as the person at the 12 minute mark. I write about it in my book Positive Angle.

[@condorX2]

Saw this not long ago. How South Korea Enslaved Women for U.S. Troops for Years

[@pshiva2603]

Stop the West , Stop Harassing Asian women

[@りか-d4h]

Strangely enough, former comfort women believed that Japan was responsible for the events of the Korean War.

[@igeorgoudi]

I remember this happening in Africa and Asia and I kept wondering if it happened in Eastern or former communist European countries. Reading through the comments I realised it did. And it will keep happening with minorities or immigrant children that are allegedly " orphans" or travelling alone. There are many non accompanied immigrant children that EU trasnfered from entrance countries ( i.e. Greece) to other parts of the continent but citizens were never told where they were going or what happened to them. ...

[@MohamedBadat-yp7xj]

Where did it happen in Africa?

[@igeorgoudi]

@@MohamedBadat-yp7xj i remember watching a documentary about adoptions in Africa in general ( unfortunately i cannot remember where exactly) about canadian and american institutions that " helped" kids in Africa find families in the West. Turns out their parents did not want to give them away at all...

[@salj.5459]

@@igeorgoudiIt's to provide victims for p€d0 philia in the west

[@OldLordSpeedy]

That is funny, as German I understand her own language little bit better as the English language translation. Okay, I am from Schleswig-Holstein, possible this is it? But I not know Norwegian language. 😂 More funny, Norwegian language is older as English language but similar to German... I wish that all adopted kids found her/his own parents. Myself known my own family story back till 1640 A.D. ... 😊

[@Tan92lfc]

Kingdom of Denmark once ruled your Province right ?

[@Tan92lfc]

So Norwegian sounds like German.

[@sampson1377]

Sort of

[@HoangTran-wu6se]

A lot of adopted Asian baby girls in the US was abandoned daughters from the one child policy too. In fact, they were the majority since they have a much bigger population than South Korea.

[@Hkchinese888]

Since we broke, you're welcomed to take our kids.

[@МарияТод-т1у]

WHO Need these kids? I‘m not racist, but for what. They took them, give them love, care and they search for real mothers. I would be very sad on the place of their adopted mother. And also I feel that it’s unfair in many cases

[@Hkchinese888]

@@МарияТод-т1у the movie !i0n will give you the answer

[@ابوزينب-ذ3ف]

تقرير رائع ..باسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ما شاء الله

[@kim75-q5k]

So sad 😭

[@rapha1001]

What a fkin shame ....

[@MrSky10101]

Huge win for the kids

[@Worldaffairslover]

Same with China too. Mainly girls. And Vietnamese

[@actaeon5770]

Feels like move SALT. But more sad. Adoptees are grown up and looking for their origin. Like Horizon zero dawn

[@EpilepticHouseplant]

CCP diverts attention again, I see. For shame.

[@tikusjauuuwa7731]

They love it

[@misterbig9025]

We don't mind selling ours! We can always make new ones.

[@chikiboomboom665]

😂😅😂😅😂😅 dont think those white people want smelly dark babies 😂😅😂😅

[@BeijingGenocideOlympic2022..]

My condolences to the millions of *Uyghur children in Xinjiang* who lost their lands and schools and now are separated from their parents and forced to work or put into orphanages by the Chinese🇨🇳 regime.

[@SM-ku3uo]

yawn🥱

[@Hkchinese888]

Hmm, they are evils

[@pbworld7858]

Boring.

[@leesiewoo5116]

​@@Hkchinese888it all false,it propaganda by US which they spend 300 millions dollars per year to black name China

[@leesiewoo5116]

​@@Hkchinese888the evils one is the us which killed million of people