Newsis Interviews USKRG Board Member Michelle Leco

"Give Me the Record of My Life"; Why Overseas Adoptees are Turning to the Truth Commission

Michelle filed for a truth investigation on the very first day the Third Truth Commission began its work

• She had believed her entire life that she was an "abandoned child"—but even the official records raise more questions than answers.

• "Where the records end, they must be completed through the voices of those directly affected."

• "Beyond acknowledging illegal adoptions, we need to guarantee adoptees' right to access their records."

Original Newsis article has been translated using the help of ChatGPT and can be found here: "내 삶의 기록을 달라"…그들은 왜 진화위를 찾았나[진화위, 해외입양을 다시 묻다①] :: 공감언론 뉴시스 ::

Korean adoptee Michelle Leco stands in front of a childhood photograph of himself during a visit last year to the "Adoptee Voices" exhibition at Omma Poom Garden, a space for the memories and healing of overseas adoptees in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. (Photo: Provided by Michelle Leco)

Truth Commission: Reexamining Intercountry Adoption, Part 1

Editor's Note: After enduring decades of war and poverty, South Korea sent approximately 200,000 children overseas for adoption. For many years, overseas adoption was regarded as a humanitarian endeavor. However, over time, growing concerns have emerged about the responsibility of the government and adoption agencies, including the fabrication of orphan records and failures to obtain proper consent from legal guardians.

Now adults, overseas Korean adoptees are demanding the right to know the truth about their births, their adoption records, and ultimately, their own identities. Records are at the heart of uncovering the truth about overseas adoptions. Some records have disappeared, while others were distorted from the very beginning. On the 21st, the Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea (TRC) will resume its investigation into overseas adoption cases that had been left unresolved. In this three-part series, Newsis examines why overseas adoptees are turning to the Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the principles and methods the Commission intends to use to uncover the truth about overseas adoption.

Seoul | Newsis | Reporter Cho Seong-ha — On February 26, the first day of the Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission's new term, Michelle Leco (53), a Korean-born adoptee living in the United States, joined hundreds of other overseas adoptees in filing applications for official truth investigations into their adoption processes.

What Michelle wants to know is the most basic information about her own life. Was she truly an abandoned child? Or was she a child who had simply become separated from her family? What was her Korean name? When was she born? Who are her biological relatives?

These are facts that most people take for granted throughout their lives. Yet Michelle has lived for more than fifty years without knowing the answers.

"Time is running out for adoptees. Both biological parents and adoptees are growing older. I hope this investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will lead to broader changes, so that the law and institutional framework are reformed to ensure that every adoptee has the right to access their own records."

In a video interview with Newsis on the morning of the 10th, Michelle said: "Time is running out for adoptees. Both biological parents and adoptees are growing older. I hope this investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will lead to broader changes, so that the law and institutional framework are reformed to ensure that every adoptee has the right to access their own records."

A childhood photograph of Michelle Leco taken in South Korea before she was adopted to the United States. It is the only photograph Michelle has kept from before her departure from Korea. (Photo: Provided by Michelle Leco) 

Around 1975, when she was two years old, Michelle was adopted by a family in Pennsylvania in the United States. She grew up in a loving home with her adoptive parents, but life as a Korean adoptee in America was far from easy.

In a community where more than 70% of the residents were white, Michelle experienced racial discrimination for the first time in kindergarten. At school, she faced discrimination even from teachers, leaving her struggling with questions about her identity. Outside the safety of her adoptive parents' home, she always felt that she belonged fully to neither Korea nor America.

When she was a teenager, her adoptive father told her something that profoundly shocked her: she had been abandoned.

"It felt as though I was being told that I was someone no one had wanted. I came to believe that Korea hadn't wanted me either, and I tried to forget that I had ever been adopted." As Michelle continued speaking calmly, her voice began to tremble.

One line immediately caught her attention: "Found in the waiting room at Busan Station." In that moment, Michelle wondered whether she had not been abandoned by her family after all, but had become separated from them.

It all began three years ago, when Michelle set foot in South Korea for the first time. Although the culture and language were unfamiliar, she said she felt a profound sense of connection that was difficult to explain. She began meeting other overseas adoptees with similar experiences and started searching for her own records. After filing requests for public disclosure of information, she finally obtained documents from Namkwang Children's Home. One line immediately caught her attention: "Found in the waiting room at Busan Station." In that moment, Michelle wondered whether she had not been abandoned by her family after all, but had become separated from them.

"Busan Station is an extremely crowded place," Michelle said. "If I was lost rather than abandoned, my family may still have been looking for me." The more she examined her records, however, the more questions arose.

The English-language documents provided to her adoptive parents stated that her Korean name, Shin Won-young, and her date of birth, October 28, 1973, had been assigned by the director of Namkwang Children's Home. Yet the original Korean records contained no information supporting that claim. "I don't even know whether my name or my date of birth is real," Michelle said.

The records prepared by Namkwang Children's Home and the Korea Social Service (KSS) also contained numerous inconsistencies. Her height, weight, and health status differed from one document to another. She has still been unable to obtain the police records from the time she was found or documents that would verify the adoption process itself.

"These are the records of my own life, yet I had almost no access to them."

"These are the records of my own life, yet I had almost no access to them," Michelle said. "I began advocacy work to regain control over my own records."

She now serves on the board of the U.S. Korean Rights Group (USKRG), an organization advocating for the rights of Korean adoptees in the United States. Michelle says that even if an adoptee was raised by a loving adoptive family, one feeling never disappears: "No matter how good your adoptive family was, you still want to know who your first family is."

Korean adoptee Michelle Leco, who lives in the United States, is speaking in a video interview with Newsis on the 10th. (Photo: Screenshot from the video interview) 

Michelle believes that where the written record ends, the gaps must be filled by the voices of those who lived the experience. In other words, the lives and memories of overseas adoptees should themselves be treated as essential evidence in the search for the truth.

"Only adoptees themselves can fully explain how adoption has affected their lives. For too long, other people have spoken on our behalf. The Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission must listen directly to each overseas adoptee and investigate their experiences."

"Only adoptees themselves can fully explain how adoption has affected their lives," Michelle said. "For too long, other people have spoken on our behalf. The Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission must listen directly to each overseas adoptee and investigate their experiences."

There is a reason she speaks so emphatically. During the Second Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 311 of the 367 overseas adoption cases were suspended due to reasons such as insufficient evidence. As a result, the applicants never received a final determination and were left waiting for another opportunity to pursue the truth.

"From a human rights perspective, the absence of records can itself constitute a human rights violation. I hope the Third Commission conducts its investigations not according to subjective opinion, but in accordance with international human rights standards."

Han Boonyoung, a Danish Korean adoptee and Chair of the Danish Korean Rights Group (DKRG), said: "From a human rights perspective, the absence of records can itself constitute a human rights violation. I hope the Third Commission conducts its investigations not according to subjective opinion, but in accordance with international human rights standards."

Last October, following South Korea's formal accession to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, President Lee Jae-myung apologized to overseas adoptees and their families, saying: "South Korea once bore the shameful stigma of being an 'exporter of children.'"

But for overseas adoptees, an apology alone is not enough. What they seek is the recovery of the records that explain their own lives, and the creation of a system that guarantees everyone the right to discover their origins.

But for overseas adoptees, an apology alone is not enough.

What they seek is the recovery of the records that explain their own lives, and the creation of a system that guarantees everyone the right to discover their origins. They argue that support should be expanded for overseas adoptees who cannot easily travel to Korea for financial reasons, and that access to adoption records should be broadened so that learning the truth about one's adoption is recognized not as an extraordinary privilege requiring special procedures, but as a fundamental right.

Michelle emphasized that improving Korea's DNA database is particularly urgent. Although overseas adoptees are currently allowed to submit their DNA to the National Police Agency's missing-children database, genetic matching is effectively limited to biological parents and siblings. As a result, connections with other close relatives—such as uncles, aunts, or other extended family members—are, in practice, extremely difficult to establish.

In closing, Michelle expressed her hopes for the Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission: "I hope the Commission will officially acknowledge that illegal and fraudulent practices were widespread throughout the overseas adoption process. And I hope that acknowledgment will become the catalyst for ensuring that every overseas adoptee has full access to their complete records."

Reporter Cho for Newsis Contact: Seong-hacreate@newsis.com