International adoption of South Korean children
Adoptions from South Korea Timeline | ||||||||||||||||||
1950 — – 1960 — – 1970 — – 1980 — – 1990 — – 2000 — – 2010 — – 2020 — |
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Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare (1968, 2005, 2023) | ||||||||||||||||||
The international adoption of South Korean children started around 1953 as a measure to take care of the large number of mixed children that became orphaned during and after the Korean War. It quickly evolved to include orphaned Korean children. Religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many Western European nations slowly developed the apparatus that sustained international adoption as a socially integrated system.
From the 1970s through the 2000s, thousands of children were adopted overseas every year. Over time, the South Korean government has sought to decrease international adoptions in favor of domestic adoptions. In 2023, seventy years after its start, South Korea still sent 79 children overseas, making it the longest-running international adoption program in the world.