SEOUL: South Korea&rsquo;s president apologized Thursday for poorly managed foreign adoption programs that were rife with abuses and fraud, months after the country&rsquo;s truth commission acknowledged state responsibility for such practices for the first time. President Lee Jae Myung said in a Facebook post that he was offering &ldquo;a heartfelt apology and words of comfort&rdquo; on behalf of the country to South Koreans adopted abroad and to their adoptive and birth families. Findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and recent court rulings confirmed cases of human rights abuses in the course of international adoptions, Lee said, adding that the government failed to fulfill its role in such cases. He did not elaborate. Lee said he &ldquo;feels heavy-hearted&rdquo; when he thinks about the &ldquo;anxiety, pain and confusion&rdquo; that South Korean adoptees suffered when they were sent abroad as children. He asked officials to create systems to safeguard the human rights of adoptees and support their efforts to find their birth parents. South Korea has faced growing pressure to address widespread fraud and abuse that plagued its adoption programs, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of children were sent abroad each year. Many adoptees later discovered their records had been falsified to portray them as abandoned orphans, while others were removed&mdash;or even stolen&mdash;from their birth families.In a landmark report in March, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded the government bore responsibility for facilitating adoption programs driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs. The report followed a nearly three-year investigation into complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia. Its findings broadly aligned with a 2024 Associated Press investigation, in collaboration with PBS Frontline, which detailed how South Korea&rsquo;s governments, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply around 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence that many were procured through questionable or unscrupulous means. After years of delay, South Korea in July ratified the Hague Adoption Convention, an international treaty meant to safeguard international adoptions. The treaty took effect in South Korea on Wednesday.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers his speech during a celebration to mark 77th Armed Forces Day in Gyeryong, South Korea Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Kim Hong-Ji/Pool Photo via AP)

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South Korea’s president apologized Thursday for poorly managed foreign adoption programs that were rife with abuses and fraud, months after the country’s truth commission acknowledged state responsibility for such practices for the first time.

South Korea's president apologizes over poorly managed foreign adoption programs

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SEOUL: Japan&rsquo;s outgoing prime minister and his South Korean counterpart underscored the need to strengthen cooperation between their nations, as US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s transactional approach to allies and trade wars are bringing the often-feuding Asian neighbors closer. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tuesday&#39;s meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the South Korean southeastern port city of Busan is their third and likely final summit. Earlier this month, Ishiba offered to resign over his ruling coalition&rsquo;s recent election defeat, triggering a contest to find his successor. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;I hope that (South) Korea and Japan can grow closer emotionally, economically, socioculturally, and in terms of security, just as they are in physical distance,&rdquo; Lee said at the start of the meeting. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ishiba said that it was &ldquo;deeply meaningful&rdquo; to conclude his final diplomatic activities as prime minister with a summit with Lee. &quot;By sharing each other&rsquo;s wisdom and experience, we can strengthen relations between our two countries while addressing our common challenges,&rdquo; Ishiba said through a translator. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two leaders issued a joint statement vowing further bilateral consultations on shared issues like low birth rates, rural revitalization and enhanced disaster prevention steps. Lee&#39;s office said the two also reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a reference to efforts to end North Korea&#39;s nuclear program. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korea and Japan are both key US allies and major trading partners. But their ties have experienced constant shifts because of history disputes stemming from Japan&rsquo;s past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Relations began improving under Lee and Ishiba&rsquo;s predecessors. But the impending departure of Ishiba, who has acknowledged Japan&rsquo;s wartime aggression and shown empathy toward the Asian victims, could pose a foreign policy challenge to Lee. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both governments said the summit was part of earlier agreements to maintain close communication and high-level exchanges between the countries. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Lee traveled to Tokyo in August for his second summit with Ishiba, he became the first South Korean leader to pick Japan as their first destination for a bilateral summit since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965. In Tokyo, Lee said he intended to pursue pragmatic diplomacy and build future-oriented relations with Japan. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korea and Japan have sought ways to tackle together challenges like North Korea&rsquo;s expanding nuclear arsenal and supply chain vulnerabilities. They are now being pushed closer together by Trump&rsquo;s push to reset global trade. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lee&rsquo;s national security director, Wi Sung-lac, earlier told reporters that Tuesday&#39;s summit would provide a venue to expand discussions in the midst of &ldquo;the rapidly changing geopolitical environment and trade order.&rdquo; He said that the meeting would also discuss Ishiba&rsquo;s possible active role in developing bilateral ties even after his departure. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korea and Japan have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in US industrial investments in hopes of avoiding the Trump administration&rsquo;s highest tariffs. But South Korean officials acknowledge they remain at odds with Washington over how Seoul&rsquo;s proposed $350 billion package would be structured and operated. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">South Korean officials have proposed delivering the investment through loans and loan guarantees and have balked at U.S. demands for upfront payments, which they say would put the country at risk of a financial crisis given the size of its foreign-currency reserves. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlike Seoul, Tokyo has already put its trade deal with Washington in writing. Trump earlier this month signed an order to lower tariffs on Japanese automobiles and other critical imports, from the initially proposed 25% to 15% while the two governments simultaneously signed a joint statement in Washington confirming $550 billion in Japanese investment in US projects.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a meeting in Busan, South Korea

Japan’s outgoing prime minister and his South Korean counterpart underscored the need to strengthen cooperation between their nations, as US President Donald Trump’s transactional approach to allies and trade wars are bringing the often-feuding Asian neighbors closer.

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South Korea's president apologizes over poorly managed foreign adoption programs

Japan and South Korea leaders commit to closer ties in their final summit