SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A 70-year-old South Korean woman sued the government, an adoption agency and an orphanage on Monday over the adoption of her daughter, who was sent to the United States in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at age 4.
The damages lawsuit filed by Han Tae-soon, whose story was part of an Associated Press investigation published last month, could spark further debate over the questionable practice of collecting children and the widespread falsification of documents that undermine South Korea’s adoption program, which annually sends thousands . children in the West during the 1970-80s.
This is the first case of Korean-born parents suing the government and adoption agency for compensation over the wrongful adoption of a child, said Kim Soo-jung, one of the lawyers representing Han.
Han searched for his daughter, Laurie Bender, for more than 40 years before being reunited through a DNA test in 2019. Speaking to reporters outside the Seoul Central District Court, Han said the South Korean government was responsible for failing to prevent the adoption. from Bender.
Han has reported to the police that his daughter is missing and is desperate to find her, visiting police stations, government offices and adoption agencies and even going to the Korean media. She has her daughter’s picture displayed everywhere – in train stations, on lampposts, on snack bags advertising missing children, the Korean version of American milk cartons.
Han accused Holt Children’s Services, South Korea’s largest adoption agency, of facilitating Bender’s adoption without a background check. His attorney said the Jechon Children’s Home made no effort to locate the parents after Bender was placed in the facility by police in May 1975, the day after Han reported him missing.
In her adoption papers, Bender, named Shin Gyeong-ha at birth, was described as an orphan with no parents. Under the new Korean name created by the orphanage, Baik Kyong Hwa, he was sent to the United States in February 1976.
“For 44 years, I wandered and searched for my son, but the joy of meeting him was short-lived and now I am in great pain because we cannot communicate in the same language,” Han said, fighting back tears.
“It turns out that he didn’t try to find his obvious parents and pretended to be an orphan for adoption abroad. I want the government and Holt to explain to us how this happened.
Kim, a lawyer, said the government is at fault for the botched child search that led to Bender’s adoption, saying that he could have easily been found if the missing child’s information had been correctly shared between police stations or if officers had tried to search for orphanages.
“While the state bears a great responsibility for not doing its job to help find missing children and reunite them with their families, we also believe that (orphanages) and adoption agencies cannot escape responsibility as well,” Kim said.
“We suspect that this child protection institution failed to fulfill its ethical obligation to help find the child’s parents, even though the child said (he) has a family and has parents.”
Jeon Min Kyeong, another lawyer representing Han, said he was seeking about 600 million won ($445,000) in damages. The lawsuit lists Han, his wife and two younger children as plaintiffs, but not Bender, Jeon said.
South Korea’s Justice Ministry, which is representing the government in the lawsuit, and Holt did not immediately comment on the suit.
In a previous interview with the AP, Bender said he was approached by a strange woman while playing near his home in the city of Cheongju. He remembers the woman saying that her family no longer wanted her because Han had another baby. Confused, Bender left with the woman, who, after boarding the train, left him in Jechon, a town 50 miles away.
After failing to find her daughter for four decades, Han registered her DNA with a non-profit group called 325 Kamra, which helps Korean adoptees reunite with their families through genetic information. In the United States, Bender takes a DNA test because his own daughter wants to see his heritage and 325 Kamra connects him in 2019.
Just weeks after finding her mother, Bender and her daughter flew to Korea to meet Han. Recognizing Bender immediately, Han ran to him, screaming, moaning, running his fingers through Bender’s hair.
“It’s like the hole in your heart has been healed, you finally feel like a complete person,” Bender said. “It’s like you’ve been living a fake life and everything you know isn’t true.”
An AP investigation, also documented by Frontline (PBS), describes how the South Korean government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked together to place some 200,000 Korean children in the United States and other Western countries, despite years of evidence that children. sold through questionable or dishonest means. Western countries ignore the issue and sometimes force South Korea to bring children as it focuses on meeting the huge domestic demand for babies.
In 2019, Adam Crapser became the first Korean adoptee to sue the South Korean government and adoption agency for compensation, accusing them of mishandling his adoption to the United States, where he faced legal trouble after surviving childhood abuse before being deported in 2016. .
After four years of trial, the Seoul Central District Court last year ordered Crapser’s adoption agency, Holt, to pay 100 million won ($74,000) in damages for failing to inform adopters that they must take separate steps to obtain citizenship after adoption. approved by state courts.
However, the court rejected Crapser’s accusations against the Korean government for failing to monitor and supervise. The case is now before the Seoul High Court after Crapser and Holt appealed.
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AP writer Claire Galofaro in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.
