The features are from the Korean investigative media Newstapa and are based on documents and correspondence between the Danish adoption agencies and the Korean adoption agencies Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Services, Inc.

Cases and transactions before 1976 also include the company Holt International, because Holt in Korea and Holt in the USA were the same group.

The source material is publicly available on the Danish adoption authority's website www.ast.dk.

You can read more from Newstapa here

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Understand the role of the Korean state and the adoption agencies

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Evidence:
Holt Childrens Service made children orphans on paper and falsified background information

Legal definition of an orphan:

"A child meets orphan requirements if: The child's parent(s) are legally deceased; and. The child has not acquired another parent (such as a stepparent or legal adoptive parent)"

Kirsten Sandberg is professor of children's law at the University of Oslo.She has also chaired the UN Children's Committee.

- All adoptions must be voluntary on the part of the biological parents. But in these cases, the Norwegian authorities do not know whether the mother has consented or not, because she has been removed from the documents. Therefore, I believe this is an unsustainable and illegal practice. (Read Norwegian news article from May 14, 2023)

The words come from former Holt director Kim Dae Schick:

"Holt confirms to Norwegian media that it was common to omit the names of single mothers in the adoption documents. The agency would spare them the stigma of having a child out of wedlock", Norwegian VG, May 13 2023

The Norwegian Holt-scandal: Norwegian VG news media reveals the adoption scam of Holt

In 1996 and in 2002, the Ministry of Children and Families, the National Adoption Office and BUFA went on inspection trips to South Korea to investigate the adoption business.

They met with both the South Korean authorities and the adoption agency Holt.

There, the Norwegian delegation also learns the following:

Because the biological parents are not listed in the documents, it is the head of the adoption agency who approves that the child can be adopted away.

This approval, a so-called "Statement of Release for adoption", is the very basis for the adoption which is later carried out in Norway.

- It doesn't work! says professor of jurisprudence at Oslo Met, Julia Köhler-Olsen after learning about the contents of the reports.

- Removing information about biological origin in this way is not legal. It is a serious encroachment on the child's right to privacy, family life and identity - and violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Norway has committed to follow, she says.

In an inspection report after a trip to South Korea in 2002, the Children, Youth and Family Administration writes:

"Despite the fact that biological origins, at least the mothers, are almost always known, the child's background is stated as unknown on the release document".

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By then, the Norwegian authorities had learned that children of single mothers were registered as orphans or of unknown background in the official adoption documents. This despite the fact that the mothers were alive.

"This goes against our legislation and our attitude towards a child's need for and right to know his biological origin where this is possible," states the report, which was handed over to the Ministry of Children and Families.

Professor of children's law Kirsten Sandberg calls it an "unacceptable legal construction".

- This goes against both the Children's Convention and the Hague Convention to which Norway committed itself in the 1990s.

The association Verdens Barn has carried out adoptions from South Korea to Norway since 1969. Today, managing director Young K. Kim says this to VG:

- We are not the ones who create adoption documents. It's happening in Korea.

Verdens Barn has been aware of how the documents were filled out - and has never tried to hide this from the Norwegian authorities, says Young.

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If you are Korean you can write in Korean language.

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Were the adoption agencies ever humanitarian projects or were they in fact human trafficking institutions?

Read and decide for your self!

For decades, people all over the world have been donating money to adoption agencies like Holt and Korean Social Service! The donations were made in the belief that they were humanitarian efforts, but were they really? What were your donations used for? The documents here have been discovered in Korea's own National Archives. These are not the words of the adoptees, but the Korean state's own words!

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Ongoing research by DKRG

DKRG is currently investigating document falsifications by Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Service, Inc., dealing with past and present actions. The challenges are that the fakes and frauds of the adoption companies are not completed acts in the past, but are being produced in the present day.

DKRG and our partner organizations have initiated an investigation of the adoption agencies' medical documents over the years. A worrying picture emerges of the adoption agencies' practices to date. These investigations point to Korean children who have died in the custody of adoption agencies and possible document fraud.

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Over the years, millions of dollars have been sent from the recipient countries to the adoption companies Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korean Social Service, Inc. One thing we know! The money did not go to humanitarian purposes or child welfare! But what were they used for? How many hundreds of millions of dollars is this about? Who got the money? Who are the dark masters of the adoption industry hiding in the shadows? DKRG and our partner organizations follow the money!

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Watch the United Nations session on illegal intercountry adoptions, 20th of September 2023

Click here to watch

"The joint statement was issued while the question of illegal intercountry adoptions is being raised in several countries, with an increasing number of adoptees discovering inconsistencies or errors in their adoption process, and that stories they had been told about their origins and the reasons for their adoptions were fake."

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Recipe: How to make a Korean child disappear

In Korea, it was easy to make a child disappear! It actually only took a few ingredients…

- 1 Korean child (the child could be stolen, abducted or come from forced Korean mother)
- 5-10 forged home-made template documents
- 1 made up story about the child's origin, which could be used for the official adoption story
- 1-2 fabricated narratives about God's blessing of adoptions
- The whole thing was seasoned with equal parts greed for money and cynicism

Once a Korean adoption agency had taken in a child (we know this happened in many different ways), the child's origin was masked by the adoption agencies to hide the child's true origin.

After that, a series of documents were drawn up by the adoption agency and the child was offered on the world market, where there was a demand for Korean children.

After this, the Korean adoption agency arranged for a document to be made, so that their own director or president of the company was the guardian of the child, so that it appeared to the outside world that this person was looking after the best interests of the child.

After that, it was just a matter of sending bank details and putting the Korean child on a plane to the destination country.

That it could even be done is one of the reasons why DKRG has requested the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate adoptions from Korea!

In Denmark we have the words of the directors of the Danish adoption agency that they knew about falsification of documents and the double archives of the adoption agencies!

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Testimonials from adoptees

(Will be continuously updated)

Courtesy of Pression (c) 2023

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Understanding the Korean procedure of foundlings

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This document is from Korea's own National Archives. It describes the procedure for how the police must deal with an end foundling or abandoned child.

The document is very comprehensive and detailed and describes who does what.

The document also mentions documents and procedures for the child.

The problem is simply that the Korean agencies do not admit to knowledge of the procedure and deny any knowledge of the documents.

Still, the adoption agencies claim to have received a missing child from the police, but they simply cannot prove it when the adoptees ask for documentation of it.

Understanding Namkwang and KSS

Of the adoptees' documents from Korean Social Service, Inc. it appears that the adoptees were found on the street by passers-by and handed in to a police station, which handed the child over to municipal social authorities and from there to temporary protection at the Namkwang Orphanage in Busan. Namkwang Orphanage in Busan then sent the child to the adoption company Korean Social Service, Inc., which subsequently sent the child for overseas adoption. BUT....

When the adoptee approaches Korean Social Service, Inc. and asks for documents proving the adoption company's official history, the adoptee's background suddenly changes. Then the child is not found in the streets of Busan. Yes, actually the kid has never been to Busan at all. The child has never been to Namkwang and has never been in contact with municipal authorities in Namkwang.

All we know is that the child was sent via Korean Social Service, Inc. to a foreign country via overseas adoption!

But where does the adopted person come from? This is what we are asking the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission to find out!

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Understanding the duties of the Korean adoption agencies and the procedures before adoption

When a Korean adoption agency received a child, the Korean government had established a procedure under the Korean Adoption Act for how a Korean child should be handled prior to the adoption process.

The Korean government's procedure was very detailed and required all adoption agencies in Korea to do this process.

The only problem is that when the adoptees ask for documents that appear from the procedure set by the Korean government, no adoption agency has any of these documents.

Did the adoption agencies follow procedures? That's what we asked the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission!

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What does Korean law and international law say about the rights of adoptees?

And does the Korean state and the adoption agencies comply?

Article 8 also says that a child or young person should be able to find out about their early life. It says they should be able to find out about the country they’re from, and that they should be able to enjoy its culture, religion and language.

The European Court of Human Rights of Human Rights has confirmed family life can exist between siblings—reinforcing your European Convention on Human Rights right to family life.

Article 8
1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.

2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.

The UNCRC also says that every effort should be made to enable siblings to maintain contact with each other, unless this is against their wishes or interests.

United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (II B (17)

Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which is about the child’s right to a family life, also talks about the importance of a child’s right to an identity. It recognises the importance of siblings, grandparents and other relatives to a child’s sense of identity.

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Admission of falisification of adoptee's documents

Understanding the hojuk trick

The agency hojuk trick is to take a Korean child without any birth registration and make a hojuk as if the child has no parents.

Children that have been registered by Korean family and are registered on the family registration gets a new hojuk by request of the adoption agency.

That means that the child in some cases appears to have two family registrations: One of the Korean family and another "orphan hojuk" produced by the adoption agency.

The "orphanized" version of the adoptee is the one who is adopted. The real Korean family registered verion of the Korean child "stays" in Korea and is registered still as a Korean citizen in some cases.

The only official document that the adoptee has is the orphan hojuk and this document isolates the adoptee from the Korean society in a dead end loop made by the adoption agencies.

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This version stays in Korea as a Korean citizen

This version is send out of Korea as an adoptee

When agencies back ground information are the same as other adoptees...

All people are born under different circumstances. Ask your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues and people around you!

However, for a large group of adoptees, this is not the case! They have exactly the same background information - as if it were one and the same person.

This is detailed information that appears in the adoptees' documents, so if an adoptee sits with them alone and looks at them, it gives the impression that the information must be correct.

Most adoptees grow up living with the information they have is the way it is... Until the adoptees start showing their background information to each other and comparing the documents they thought were unique to just them self.

If they ask the Korean adoption agencies for documentation, they admit that the information is wrong and is just made up for the sake of the adoption process.

The question for the many adoptees is, where do they come from? They were not born on the plane to the receiving country, so what happened? This is one of the many questions that adoptees have asked the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission because the adoption agencies are keeping the real information secret!

Read about the admissions of falsification of documents . Read more about the KSS Namkwang scam.

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Radio program in Danish

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How does it feel to find out, that you are in fact a stolen Korean child?

Television documentary from SBS in Korean

Listen to Danish radio program "Genstart" on Danish radio

Presentation from Danish Radio:

"In the autumn of last year, Mia Lee finds out that everything she has been told about her adoption is a lie. She grew up in the countryside outside Ringsted with the story that her biological parents gave her away voluntarily - to give her a better life. That's what her adoption papers say. But when she finds her biological parents this fall, after years of searching, she finds out that the doctors removed her shortly after birth and told her mother she was dead . Mia Lee is just one of the many adoptees from South Korea who have found out that she was adopted on the wrong basis. And after pressure from the Danish organization Danish Korean Rights Group, the South Korean government has now agreed to launch an investigation .reboot today about Mia Lee's search for her own story.

In Horisont you can see more about the adoption scandal (sent 24 January 2023).

Host: Anna Ingrisch."

The adoption agencies claim, that eveything was done the right way - but where are all the consents for adoption?

This question and many other questions adoptees from all over the world ask the adoption agency Holt Children's Services, Inc. and Korea Social Service, Inc.!

Here you can read the answers from the adoption companies Holts Children's Services, Inc. and Korea Social Service, Inc.

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This is the list of documents that the adoption company Holt Children's Services, Inc. themselves say that they have about each of the adopted.

But when the adoptees ask for these documents, the answer is typically a non-answer:

"Holt previously sent your papers and now we are sending them again"

"Holt knows nothing about the documents being asked for"

Or Holt simply does not correspond to the adopted!

MEET BILL

In 1976 I was seven years old. I lived in a remote rice farming village with my parents and siblings near Daejeon in Korea. After the harvest my mother and I journeyed by bus to the city to sell produce at the outdoor market. While we were in the city,

I was taken by a strange man who took me to an apartment in the city. Until then I had lived in a rural village with no plumbing or electricity. It was my first time seeing an apartment, modern furniture, refrigerator, etc.

The man who took me left me at the apartment with a man and woman. The next day the man returned and took me to Sungshil Children's Home in Daejeon City. He took me to the orphanage and left me there.

By this time I was severely traumatized and could not talk. All I could do was to cry for my mother. I believe the man sold me to the orphanage. I further believe he made up a false name and birth date for me.

Soon, I was transferred to an orphanage run by Holt. In violation of existing laws banning single parent adoptions, I was adopted to an American businessman. He was never married then it since. He took me home from the orphanage on Dec. 13, 1976. My adoption to the US was not a good experience. Approximately five years ago, I read my adoption file for the first time.

"I am not seeking any form of retribution or recompense. I just want to know if there is someone out there who misses me as much as I miss them"

"As an adoptee, I have suffered so much mental and psychological anguish."

That's when I realized that there were many inconsistencies. The first was that my file says I was adopted on February 1977.

I realized that Holt Children's Services allowed my adoptive father to take me home almost the months before officially filing my papers.

The second problem I saw was that I had told my father as a child that I was in two orphanages, but he kept denying it.

"That is when I realized the depth of the lies that surround my adoption."

The third thing is that my file says there is no one information on my mother. However, when I began emailing Holt, they told me first that there is no information on my mother.

As I pressed the question, the case worker said my mother was a single woman who lived in the city and worked as a seamstress.

She was too poor to take care of me so she abandoned me at the orphanage.

That is when I realized the depth of the lies that surround my adoption. I am trying to tell my story to anyone who will listen to me. For almost the entirety of my life I tried to deny, suppress or flat out lie about my desire to find my birth family.

As an adoptee, I have suffered so much mental and psychological anguish. It's even more intense when I consider that my suffering is caused by the design of those who thought so little of the value of a child's life.

I am not seeking any form of retribution or recompense. I just want to know if there is someone out there who misses me as much as I miss them. I hope you can either help me or point me to someone who may be able to help.

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These were the dying father's last words to Kyung Sook Jung's 10 year older Korean sister. The dying father's last wish was granted 13 years later when the biological family was reunited, and the methods of the adoption agency Holt Childrens Services were revealed.

In 1987 her dying fathers last wish was granted. Kyung Sook Jung came to South Korea for the first time. She visited her father's grave in 2017 to pay her respects to the father who had sought her and kept her in his heart until the very end.

"When I stood in front of my father's and mother’s grave, I felt like my whole life was one big lie. I felt like I had been made a commodity for Holt to make a profit", Kyung Sook Jung tells.

Kyung Sook Jung's adoption process has been very traumatizing for her. Today she has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) by medical doctors in Norway related to her adoption process.

"I have the same nightmare over and over again, where I dream that I am sitting on a bench with other children and scream that I want to go home", Kyung Sook Jung tells.

Kyung Sook Jung's post-traumatic stress syndrome doesn't just show up when she's sleeping.

"In everyday life, I can experience being completely paralyzed. I have the doctors' word that this and my repeated nightmares are due to PTSD as a direct result of the adoption", Kyung Sook Jung explains.

Kyung Sook Jung has tried to cancel the adoption from her side. But that is not easy. Kyung Sook Jung's life as an adoptee has not been the happy life that is stated in the brochures from Holt that "Adoption Is Love".

With her participation in DKRG's case at South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Kyung Sook Jung demands restitution and restoration.

"When I stood in front of my father's and mother’s grave, I felt like my whole life was one big lie"

"In everyday life, I can experience being completely paralyzed. I have the doctors' word that this and my repeated nightmares are due to PTSD as a direct result of the adoption"

Kyung Sook Jung was adopted from South Korea to Norway in 1970 via the adoption agency Holt Childrens Services Inc. Kyung Sook Jung is one of the adoptees who have joined the Danish Korean Rights Group's (DKRG) request to South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a thorough investigation into overseas adoption from South Korea regarding violations of human rights and suspected fraud and forgery in the adoption process.

DKRG has opened for all adoptees outside of Denmark who are adopted from Holt and KSS. In September, DKRG goes back to South Korea again to hand over more Danish cases and cases from the rest of the world to present to the Commission.

"I would very much like to join your case, since I know I was wrongfully taken and shipped to Norway", with these words 53-year-old Kyung Sook Jung contacts the Danish Korean Rights Group to announce her participation.

From Kyung Sook Jung's adoption documents, it appears that she is an orphan. She can present an orphan Ho Juk (호적) where she is the head of the family. From her adoption documents it appears that she was born in 1968.

Both pieces of information are not correct as many other pieces of information from Holt. Kyung Sook Jung was not an orphan, and she was born in 1969 and not in 1968.

The adoption was also not voluntary on the part of the family. Here is Kyung Sook Jung's real story:

Kyung Sook Jung is born in 1969. Her mother dies soon after of illness, leaving her and her 3 older Korean siblings to the care of the father. Kyung Sook Jung falls seriously ill shortly after her mother's death, and the father goes to the local authorities for help.

Kyung Sook Jung is hospitalized and this is the last time the father sees Kyung Sook Jung. The father never got to see Kyung Sook Jung again.

What Kyung Sook Jung’s father didn’t know, was that she were put up for overseas adoption via the hospital's contacts with the adoption agency Holt, and the father never succeeded in getting Kyung Sook Jung back. In 1970, Kyung Sook Jung arrives to Norway without her father's knowledge, to a Norwegian adoptive family.

The father dies of illness in 1974. The father's last words to Kyung Sook Jung's 10-year-old sister are that the sister must promise to find Kyung Sook Jung so that the three sisters can take care of each other when the father is gone.

The loss of Kyung Sook Jung had affected her father greatly. In 1987, she reunited with her South Korean biological family. From her older sister, she has learned that in the intervening years until his death, the father searched for Kyung Sook Jung in all the orphanages in the area in South Korea.

Kyung Sook Jung's South Korean family has told her that they had in no way imagined that she was adopted out of the country to Norway, but that they had always believed that Kyung Sook Jung was somewhere in South Korea; but the truth would turn out to be different

Last dying words: "Promise me to find Kyung Sook so you sisters take care of each other"

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Understand the ethnic cleansing on "mixed-race" children

Definition(s)

"Rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group, which is contrary to international law"

Source(s)

UN Security Council: Final Report of the Commission of Experts established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992)

Source: 50 Decades of SWS

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Deportation lists i numbers showing "White, Negro and Others" of mixed-race children.

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Download logos and press photos (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

DKRG Press & Media
Contact DKRG

Co-founder, DKRG

TRC co-signer and steering group, DKRG

Health science researcher and steering group, DKRG

Co-founder, DKRG

Korean National Human Rights Commission study on adoptions from Korea

Download summary of the Korean study

Download the full Korean study here!

Video from the conference: Courtesy of Kim Sun Ju, member of Korean Parliament

Left sound channel is Korean. Right sound channel is English

In Spring 2022 the Korean National Human Rights Commission initiated a study into adoptions from Korea.

To date the study is the largest scientific study on human rights abuses in overseas adoption.

The study is made by Korean scholars and experts.

The study was presented in 2023 at Korean National Assembly.

Follow up scientific articles are to be made, and will be read here as they are published.

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Download section for main documents 1 and 2 to the commission

Press releases

Danish Korean Rights Group

in media

Denmark

Norway

International media

18.06.2023:The Adoption Investigator: Data on illegal adoptions in all countries surveyed

Korean mediaDates are shown as day-month-year

#16for16

Follow youtube.com/@Eatbemary for more

Keep in touch

Understand the DKRG request to Koreas Truth and Reconciliation Commission (more topics are under construction)

The Swiss report about adoptions from Korea

The Danish report about adoptions from Korea in the 1970s and 1980s (published January 25, 2024)

Understand donations to Korean adoption agencies Holt and KSS

Understand the role of the Korean state and the adoption agencies

Evidence: Holt Childrens Service made children orphans on paper and falsified background information

The Norwegian Holt-scandal: Norwegian VG news media reveals the adoption scam of Holt

Do you know something?Tip the DKRG!

Were the adoption agencies ever humanitarian projects or were they in fact human trafficking institutions? Read and decide for your self!

Ongoing research by DKRG

Watch the United Nations session on illegal intercountry adoptions, 20th of September 2023Click here to watch

Recipe: How to make a Korean child disappear

Testimonials from adoptees(Will be continuously updated)Courtesy of Pression (c) 2023

Understanding the Korean procedure of foundlings

Understanding Namkwang and KSS

Understanding the duties of the Korean adoption agencies and the procedures before adoption

Admission of falisification of adoptee's documents

Understanding the hojuk trick

This version stays in Korea as a Korean citizen

This version is send out of Korea as an adoptee

When agencies back ground information are the same as other adoptees...

How does it feel to find out, that you are in fact a stolen Korean child?

The adoption agencies claim, that eveything was done the right way - but where are all the consents for adoption?

MEET BILL

"I am not seeking any form of retribution or recompense. I just want to know if there is someone out there who misses me as much as I miss them"

"As an adoptee, I have suffered so much mental and psychological anguish."

"That is when I realized the depth of the lies that surround my adoption."

"When I stood in front of my father's and mother’s grave, I felt like my whole life was one big lie"

"In everyday life, I can experience being completely paralyzed. I have the doctors' word that this and my repeated nightmares are due to PTSD as a direct result of the adoption"

Last dying words: "Promise me to find Kyung Sook so you sisters take care of each other"

Understand the ethnic cleansing on "mixed-race" children

Download logos and press photos (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Korean National Human Rights Commission study on adoptions from Korea

Left sound channel is Korean. Right sound channel is English

Korean media

Dates are shown as day-month-year

Evidence:
Holt Childrens Service made children orphans on paper and falsified background information

Do you know something?

Tip the DKRG!

Were the adoption agencies ever humanitarian projects or were they in fact human trafficking institutions?

Read and decide for your self!

Watch the United Nations session on illegal intercountry adoptions, 20th of September 2023

Click here to watch

Testimonials from adoptees

(Will be continuously updated)

Courtesy of Pression (c) 2023