History of Adoption in Korea

Chapter 3

A Leap into Professional Adoption Projects and Child Services

Trend of Domestic and Intercountry Adoption

Intercountry adoption began to increase again in 1968, taking up 75.92% of adoption in the 1970s Problems arose due to unfeasible domestic adoption policies
Intercountry adoption became diversified into Europe as well as the U.S.

Major Events

• 1970 Temporarily suspend adoption to Northern European countries

• 1972 Korea a Christian Crusade(Eastern Social Welfare Society) began adoption services

• 1976 Established Eastern Child Welfare Society, abolished Act on Special Cases Concerning Orphan Adoption and enacted

• Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption

• Planned to suspend intercountry adoption from 1985

• Developed a 5-year plan for adoption projects

• Implemented an intercountry adoption quota system

Current Status of Adoption Agencies

• <According to Year of Establishment>

• Social Welfare Society

• 1954 Established Child Placement Service

• 1961 Changed its Korean name but kept its English name

• 1971 Changed its name to Social Welfare Society

• Holt Children's Services

• 1956 Established Holt Adoption Program

• 1972 Changed its name to Holt Children's Services

• Korea Social Service

• 1964 Established Korea Social Service

• Eastern Social Welfare Society

• 1971 Established a Christian Crusade in Korea

• 1972 Started adoption services

• 1976 Established Eastern Child Welfare Society

• 1997 Changed its name to Eastern Social Welfare Society

The Establishment of Eastern Social Welfare Society

Kim Deuk-hwang, the first president of the Eastern Social Welfare Society, established a Christian Crusade in Korea in July 1971 and began adoption services with the authorization of the government in 1972. He established the Eastern Child Welfare Society in 1976, forming the current structure of the Social Welfare Society, Holt Children's Services, Korea Social Service, and Eastern Child Welfare Society to start vigorous adoption services.

An increase in intercounty adoption

In the 1970s to 1980s when people were confident that the economy had grown to a certain level and that they had overcome almost all the wounds from war, the number of intercounty adoptions rather rapidly increased.
7,275 children were adopted overseas in the 1960s, which soared by 6.6 times to 48,247 in the 1970s and by 8.9 times to 65,321 in the 1980s. As the success of the economic development plan that had started in 1962 achieved economic growth, aid from foreign private organizations gradually decreased.
As a result, it was insufficient to cover the child welfare budget, which had depended on overseas aid, with domestic support. The government presented an outline for child welfare reform in 1972 and reformed child welfare facilities accordingly. Therefore, the number of child welfare facilities, such as childcare centers, dropped in the mid-1970s, leading to a greater number of children with special needs in intercountry adoption.

The Enactment of Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption

As intercountry adoption rapidly increased in the late 1960s, overseas Koreans and diplomats pointed out the problems with the intercountry adoption policy. Domestic opposition also arose regarding intercounty adoption, along with international criticism from the U.S. and Europe, calling it 'orphan exports.' North Korea used this politically to reinforce false propaganda against South Korea, which led to the temporary suspension of adoption to Northern European countries. This served as momentum for Korea’s adoption policy to put more emphasis on domestic adoption than intercountry adoption. The government enacted the Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption in 1976 to correct the flaws of The Act on Special Cases Concerning Orphan Adoption and simplify the procedures for domestic and intercounty adoption of children accommodated in protective facilities, attempting to encourage domestic adoption rather than intercountry adoption. The government also imposed a duty on each intercountry adoption agency to fulfill a quota of domestic adoptions and introduced a new system of allocating intercountry adoptions according to the number of domestic adoptions, as a way to encourage domestic adoption. The move was aimed at a complete banning on intercountry adoption by 1985, by increasing domestic adoption by 10% annually while reducing intercountry adoption by 10%, but to little avail.
In 1985, the government established the 5-year plan of adoption and foster care for children with special needs, aiming to stop intercountry adoption. According to the plan, the government founded adoption and counseling agencies, which would carry out the duties of identifying, enlightening, counseling, and encouraging prospective adoptive parents. However, ambiguous regulations on duties and standards of establishment, which adoption agencies must fulfill, and performance-oriented adoption projects, hiring amateurs, resulted in a lack of professionalism, which in turn probably reinforced the public’s negative perception of adoption.