The children abandoned by South Korea’s adoption policy | The Take

The world's largest diaspora of international adoptees comes from South Korea. Among them are mixed-race children who were forcibly sent for adoption due to the country's racist laws. One Black adoptee's search for a home reflects hard truths about the past of hundreds of thousands of international adoptees.
In this episode:
Anna Kook, AJ+ Reporter
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Amy Walters and Sarí el-Khalili, with Khaled Soltan, Chloe K. Li, Duha Mosaad, Sonia Bhagat, Philip Lanos, Hisham Abu Salah, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

[@muhammadnaftalibennett7887]

*fast South Korea🇰🇷 recognise Palestine country in UN. like China, Philippines, Vietnam recognises 2 country (Palestine & Israel).*

[@adne1819]

*please.. South Korea🇰🇷 suspend/ cut diplomatic relations with Israel. like Belize, Bolivia, Colombia 🙏*

[@Dee-JayW]

This is just like what was done in Vietnam 🇻🇳 😢😢😢😢😢. Horrible.

[@ruthwright6247]

Great docu....pray he finds his Mom. I have 2 cousins who are half Vietnamese that are looking for their birth fathers (Vietnam war babies). 🙏

[@Lovely_Lady34]

It might be a lot of work, but I think it's a good idea to get some DNA samples of these mothers who have passed away, so that the children they may have birthed also find peace in their search. They can collect all these mothers in a database, maybe some adopted children have siblings they might not be aware of and can at least have some blood relatives they can connect with. I think this is the least the government of Korea can do for the harm they have caused. Edit: I read somewhere in the comment of the AJ short documentary that there is such a database already in existence and hopefully they contain both the mother who has already left us and the mothers (maybe also fathers) who are still seeking their lost children. Not sure whether these databases are connected to the different DNA commercial databases or can be connected with it in the future.

[@miro_sk]

Where can the documentary be watched? Thank you 🙏🏼

[@miro.georgiev97]

AJ+ on KZbin.

[@MelindaDavis-x8f]

Dream well come true just believe it ❤❤❤❤it will come true one day

[@diazvirdani1059]

*South Korea🇰🇷 have island disputes with Japan.* make maritime agreement & peace!

[@Pixietink]

Those poor woman

[@dre_withwithout]

Where there is pain american hegemony isn’t hard to find.

[@HKim0072]

Sure, it was all America's fault. lol, it was the South Korean government's policy to allow these adoptions for multiple reasons.

[@TheYlro]

international adoption is slavery. Its not love, its not family.

[@Saber23]

False

[@BrorealeK]

It can easily become slavery. But to paint with such a broad brush doesn't do anything but help countries that want to restrict their own citizens' right to emigration.

[@shannon-76]

I 100% disagree with you not always. My father was Korean and Black a product of the Korean war. My father was adopted by my beautiful grandparents who loved him and his children unconditional to the day they died, they supported my father my siblings and myself they gave us the best of life from education housing and most importantly love unconditionally 100%. so no not all international adoption is slavery. my father as well as his children receive the best of life and I can honestly say as a black American woman I have never experience what provided was because of my well of educated Black grandparents. You should not speak for all.

[@mailinglist2451]

Not a good interview. Malika corrected the Asian woman’s English. Then Malika asks the Asian woman personal questions

[@user-heeyu4heeyu]

박정희 때문에 경제가 부강해졌다고 말하는 사람들에게:그래서 불법입양이 일어났냐?

[@iq-ride9329]

American Democracy

[@Saber23]

What does that have to do with this issue?

[@HKim0072]

@@Saber23 This channel is basically anti-western propaganda. Always about something wrong in western society. Never anything wrong in China or ME countries.

[@cash3602]

What a thing!

[@adstix]

Lol ... the bots are off Malika's back on this story!

[@gailjames9091]

a dna test can help find cousins that where you should also start hearts go out to the mothers and their children.

[@Kenzytron]

Anna Kook is so beautiful

[@trailrideadventures]

Try ancestry DNA....

[@MDTokdarAli]

Please Al Jazeera Bangla

[@sahinhossain5645]

Im from Bangladesh fasr comment

[@gamezone1774]

Uss

[@mehediztoday5689]

@@gamezone1774 i also

[@ImranKhan-ce9ef]

👩‍❤️‍👨

[@yolandael8725]

When are people going to learn to stop calling Asiatic's from America (Black). We are Moors. Europeans came here and named people Black, African American and other names. These children need to learn their true Nationality are Moorish-Korean.

[@Saber23]

Lol 😂 also “moors” aren’t a nationality that name comes for, Europe as well and also Arabs and even Chinese people were calling sub Saharan Africans black WAY before the Europeans started colonizing Africa, we Arabs literally called it “bilad as Sudan” the land of the blacks so stop with this distorted socialist/nationalist understanding of history and just return to the truth

[@yolandael8725]

@@Saber23 you don't know what you're talking about. It came from the name Moab. Moabite/ Moorish (Moors) Ancient names. We know our history.

[@HKim0072]

lol, sovereign citizen nonsense. You realize that "Moors" is a European given word right?

[@BrorealeK]

@@yolandael8725 Who is the "we" here? This sounds similar to some conspiracist nonsense, but I don't know the details. Please educate us.

[@yolandael8725]

@@BrorealeK who are you? What's your nationality?

[@Ivysunnyvlogs]

🍎

[@mdjibrail5427]

Hii sir good night

[@Jer.Har.101]

👀🤔

[@Promptsideo]

1 subscribe= God bless you and your family ❤😢

[@ImranKhan-ce9ef]

Be🧑‍🦰tter l🧚ife

[@HusenRumi-jr9bz]

Vld mesez momin kntri anta izraiyl resihdhnt faytrzeht tu bhlast gahza sehm teal aviav kbhrstahn doan fayt sehm azhrbayzahn fayt

[@Weeweewahwah-py7qe]

Id huess monkey house means where people went to "fool around"

[@NangNangEE]

He had a better Life.

[@Salina-qd6es]

Yeah my mother missed out on having a "better life" when her parents (my grandparents) refused lucrative offer of adoption by the local Jr high science/math teacher & his wife. Of course they were Caucasian & "we" simple uneducated but "hard working" Mexican's/Immigrants were so fortunate to of been made the offer 😑

[@NangNangEE]

@@Salina-qd6es I think so too.

[@BrorealeK]

@@NangNangEE Why did you repeat yourself? You didn't get enough engagement? It looks kind of pathetic to see someone desperately try to get upvotes one comment after another.

[@NangNangEE]

@@BrorealeK ??? What the f r u talking about dude?

[@NangNangEE]

@@BrorealeK repeat what? Get out of mom's house and live ur life dude.

[@KevinHorton-e4u]

Thanks 4 journalism😂

[@NangNangEE]

So he had a better Life?

[@Lovely_Lady34]

@@NangNangEE When you watch the short documentary on AJ, you will find out that he had to deal with a lot of traumatic experiences which happered his life drastically. He was constantly in a fight with himself and therefore in his experience didn't feel like he had a better life.

[@User-laiejwo5381]

니가 뭔데 그걸 함부로 따지냐 니가 무슨 자격있다고

[@Lovely_Lady34]

@@User-laiejwo5381 Look at the AJ short documentary and make your own judgement on what he said. I at the very least, I understand the culture he was brought up into, so do have some leverage regarding what he is saying and what he means with that. I can even see that he is holding back more than what he truly wants to say but is keeping it for himself which I respect. It's the fact that when he said I felt some kind of relief when he came back around the place he was born and felt he belonged there said even more. Next to saying he didn't feel at home or part of the family he was adopted in since the beginning which was at the age of four. I'm not critiquing but feeling compassionate with his suffering and the suffering of those just like him and the ones who gave birth to them. I hope they all one day find the peace they are seeking 🤗

[@User-laiejwo5381]

@@Lovely_Lady34 Um I think there was a misunderstanding, I'm not sure how but I think it's because of the Korean language, which the language itself relies on the situation, the speaker & the listener, etc. It's a language that omits a lot of words because of it, so you need 눈치(perception? sense? It's a Korean concept) to understand the conversation. So to rephrase what I have said, I was angry with @NangNangEE for irresponsibly judging the man in the documentary. I am a Korean and a bilingual (Korean & English), who grew up mostly in Korea and spent a few years in the States. I actually empathized with the man in the documentary. I was often misunderstood because I am both Korean and American(I'm a full Korean citizen, not an American citizen, but I was greatly influenced by the US) but at the same time, I am neither Korean nor American. It's my fault that I didn't write the comment specifically.

[@Lovely_Lady34]

​​@@User-laiejwo5381ah my apologies for misunderstanding. I was more looking from the angle of the man and not from the Korean perspective. My apologies for misunderstanding your meaning and interpreting the other person's meaning from the perspective of the man. I'm sure you are better at understanding from the korean-english perspective and leave my perspective in its Dutch-English way.

[@Saber23]

I 100% support that policy in South Korea and I’m not even a Korean and ethnically and religiously homogeneous society is BY FAR the best and most stable option for any country or civilization no matter how much it causes hurt feelings

[@Jer.Har.101]

👀🤔