South Koreans abroad want probe into their past adoptions

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A group of South Korean adoptees in Europe have rallied in Seoul with their local supporters to urge South Korean authorities to investigate their adoptions decades ago. They believe they were based on falsified documents and involved rights abuses. They say they’ve so far relayed more than 300 applications by South Korean adoptees abroad calling for investigations of their adoptions to South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. About 200,000 South Koreans were adopted overseas in the past decades, mostly in the 1970-80s and mainly to white parents in the United States and Europe. The commission says it aims to determine whether to launch an investigation by late December.