(7 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seoul, South Korea – 07 October 2024
1. Various of Han Tae-soon and her lawyer Kim Soo-jung at briefing on filing lawsuit against the South Korean government and an adoption agency over adoption of Han’s daughter
2. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Han Tae-soon, plaintiff and mother of Laurie Bender:
"I wandered around for 44 years, searching for my daughter. But the joy of meeting my daughter was brief and the language barrier (between us) is very painful. Although the parents were alive, (the government and adoption agency) turned my daughter into an orphan and gave her up for an overseas adoption."
3. Wide of Han
4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Han Tae-soon, plaintiff and mother of Laurie Bender:
"Many missing children were sent overseas and now, through DNA testings, are being found. While finding their missing children, family members become sick, end up wasting their wealth, and go through tragic lives. And no one is taking responsibility."
5. Various of Han crying
6. Wide of Han’s lawyer Kim Soo-jung
7. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Soo-jung, Han’s lawyer:
"What we are focusing on is the fact that the parents reported the daughter missing, the child was taken to a police station, and all these happened within the same jurisdiction. We are focusing on why they couldn’t find her despite the fact that she was living within the same jurisdiction for two months. We believe that during this process the authority could’ve easily found her if they had made sure the police worked together and properly checked child protection facilities. They could’ve done it but failed. Why? We think because they didn’t do their jobs."
8. Wide tilt of the central district court and presser
STORYLINE:
A 70-year-old South Korean woman sued the South Korean government, an adoption agency and an orphanage over the adoption of her daughter, who was sent to the U.S in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at age four.
The damage suit filed by Han Tae-soon, whose story was part of an Associated Press investigation published last month, was sure to ignite further debate on the dubious child-gathering practices and widespread falsification of paperwork that tarnished Korea’s historic adoption program, which annually sent thousands of kids to the West during the 1970-80s.
It was the first known case of a Korean birth parent suing for damages against the government and an adoption agency over the allegedly wrongful adoption of their child, said Kim Soo-jung, one of the lawyers representing Han.
Han searched for her daughter, Laurie Bender, for more than 40 years before they reunited through DNA testing in 2019.
Han had reported Bender as missing to the police as missing and desperately searched for her, visiting police stations, government offices and adoption agencies almost daily and even going on Korean media.
Han accuses Holt Children’s Services, South Korea’s biggest adoption agency, of facilitating Bender’s adoption without checking her background.
Kim, the lawyer, claimed the Jechon Children’s Home made no effort to find the parents after Bender was placed at the facility by police in May 1975, a day after Han reported her as missing.
In her adoption papers, Bender is described as an abandoned orphan with no known parents. Under a new Korean name made by the orphanage, she was sent to the United States in February 1976.
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