Overseas Adoptees Return to Korea Seeking Family Roots

"What do Koreans think about overseas adoptees returning?" This question echoes through "K Number," a documentary film released in 2025.

723915. This is the "K Number" assigned to Mioka Miller (Korean name Kim Mi-ok), who was found on the street in 1974 at an estimated age of 8 and adopted to the United States. South Korea, once stigmatized as a "child exporting country," assigned unique identification numbers to adoption documents.

Children with K Numbers were sent to the United States, France, and Denmark before they even knew their own names. Approximately 170,000 children were adopted overseas during the 70 years since the 1950s. Fewer than 3% are estimated to have reunited with their birth families.

The documentary chronicles Kim Mi-ok's arduous journey to find her family. Hundreds of overseas adoptees visit Korea annually seeking relatives. Many turn to Baenet, an organization helping adoptees trace their roots. Kim Yoo-kyung, 55, president of Baenet Social Cooperative, has assisted them for nine years.

"Finding Families of Overseas Adoptees Together"

Kim's journey began in 2012 while living in the United States, where she met an adoptee friend named Julie. After returning to Korea in 2016, Julie asked Kim to find her birth mother. After three months of searching through adoption agencies, police, and childcare facilities, Kim miraculously located Julie's mother. "I decided I must continue this work," Kim said. She founded Baenet Social Cooperative in 2018.

The 25-member organization provides practical support for family searches, reunion assistance, and operates an adoption information records center.

In its early years, Baenet collaborated with the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's long-term missing persons investigation team, successfully tracing birth parents of 16 overseas adoptees over 18 months.

Kim also achieved institutional reform. Previously, adoptees had to visit Korea in person to register genetic information with police. In 2018, she proposed an "overseas mail DNA registration system" to Daegu police. Adopted the following year, the system expanded nationwide.

Absence of Adoption Records: "Government Must Actively Cooperate"

"Everyone has the right to know what their parents look like and who they resemble. Adoptees say knowing this helps fill something inside them," Kim said.

Kim receives over 100 family search requests annually, but most fail due to document manipulation and institutional gaps. The biggest obstacle is missing records. Many adoptees were sent overseas with birth records, birth mother information, and facility histories either missing or falsified.

"We can only find clues by gathering scattered records," Kim said. "The government must comprehensively collect records from local governments, child welfare facilities, adult vagrant facilities, disability centers, and unwed parent support facilities."

"Last year, a birth mother we found with police help had dementia. Both adoptees and birth parents are aging. Time is running out," Kim said, calling for expanded police involvement.

According to the Korea Child Rights Guarantee Agency, 68% of adoptee information disclosure requests are closed because birth parents cannot be located or contacted. Kim advocates allowing police investigation requests when birth parents' current addresses cannot be confirmed.

"Finding adoptee families is now a race against time," Kim said, estimating the golden window at seven to eight years. She will host a policy seminar on activating birth family searches for overseas adoptees at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 4th, with officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korea Child Rights Guarantee Agency attending.

"What do Koreans think about us returning?" It is time for the nation to answer the adoptees' urgent question.