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Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Korea’s Lost Children – BBC World Service documentary

Details of an upcoming BBC radio documentary.

Korea’s Lost Children
Friday 6 August
8.00-8.30pm BST (19:00 GMT) BBC WORLD SERVICE

Every year, around 1,000 South Korean children are given up for adoption in western countries.

The overseas adoption programme began in the Fifties, when masses of children found themselves orphaned after the Korean War. Approximately 200,000 Korean children have been adopted overseas during the past 60 years. About 300 of them have since returned to live in Korea – and many are now involved in trying to change the adoption laws.

BBC journalist Ellen Otzen meets Jane Trenka and Suki Leith, both of whom were adopted by American families, to explore the impact that foreign adoption has had on them.

South Korea is now one of the world’s most developed countries, and has one of the lowest birth rates globally. Successive governments have pledged to end the practice of international adoption. Ellen investigates why Korean children are still being sent overseas.

Presenter/Ellen Otzen, Producer/Penny Dale

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