Illegal adoptions between Korea·Norway laid bare after more than 70 years…“The fact-finding is only just beginning”

Illegal adoptions between Korea·Norway laid bare after more than 70 years…“The fact-finding is only just beginning”

Vigdis Eckharts, co-director of the Norwegian Korean Truth-Finding Group, is interviewed by Kyunghyang Shinmun at a hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 8th. Kwon Do-hyun reporter

“When I looked into the mirror as a child, I would often be startled to see a face that resembled no one around me. Each time, it felt as if someone had torn out the most important first page from the book of my life.”

Vigdis Eckharts (54) likened her life to ‘a book with its first page torn out’. Born in Korea in 1972, she was adopted to Norway at 11 months old. She serves as co-director of the intercountry adoptee organization in Norway, the ‘Norwegian Korean Truth-Finding Group (NKRG)’.

Vigdis visited Korea to urge countermeasures from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) in step with the recent announcement of the Norwegian government findings on intercountry adoptions. We met her at a hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 8th.

Korea is the largest country of origin for those adopted to Norway. Since 1954, more than 6,700 children have been sent. The Norwegian authorities had denied the existence of illegal adoptions. However, the ‘Committee of Inquiry on Intercountry Adoptions’ in Norway released a report in July stating that Korean intercountry adoptions over some 70 years lacked legality and legitimacy. For the first time, it officially recognized that responsibility for intercountry adoptions lies not only with Korea but also with the Norwegian government. The committee was established by royal decree in June 2023 and has investigated poor oversight in the adoption process and possible illegal practices.

Vigdis reviewed the report’s specific findings and said “I had long intuited that there were serious problems in the adoption system, but seeing the state officially acknowledge it left me relieved and deeply shocked.”

According to the report, the Norwegian government accepted documents from Korean adoption agencies without verification and, even into the late 1990s, failed to detect that children with living parents had been reclassified as ‘abandoned (orphan)’. In the 1980s, the peak of adoptions, the Norwegian Korean adoption intermediary ‘Verdens Barn’ even agreed, in return for funding provided to the Korean adoption agency ‘Holt Child Welfare Association’, that Holt would send more than 170 children per year to Norway. In 1985, the Norwegian government effectively condoned this by granting Verdens Barn an open-ended authorization for Korean adoptions without any particular investigation.

Starting the year she turned twenty, Vigdis tried to obtain her adoption records through Verdens Barn but received only repeated refusals. Vigdis said, “The intermediary agencies kept repeating the phrase ‘the birth mother’s voluntary relinquishment’,” and “‘Holt’ privatized the records on the grounds of personal information and restricted access.”

Victims of illegal intercountry adoptions from the 1970s and members of civil society groups, including the Korean Unwed Mothers Families Association, Root House, and the Domestic Adoptees Network, hold a press conference in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 7th, calling for a full accounting of illegal intercountry adoptions. Mun Jae-won reporter

In 2024, Vigdis set foot in Korea for the first time. She recalled, “It felt unfamiliar, yet I finally felt a sense of belonging to the homeland where I was meant to be.”

Vigdis said that many adoptees live with trauma stemming from illegal adoptions and identity confusion, and that, without support from the state or professional institutions, they often carry it alone and see old wounds resurface. She said, “State-level emotional support and accompaniment systems must be established so that adoptees do not have to walk the path of uncovering the truth by themselves.”

For some adoptees, finding their roots is a matter directly tied to survival. Without genetic and medical information about birth parents or family, even medical staff can find it difficult to determine appropriate treatments when sudden illness occurs. Vigdis said, “Given the ages of those adopted in the 1960s through the 1980s, there is no time to wait for decades more,” and “state-level truth-finding and restorative measures must not be delayed any longer.”

Vigdis urged the governments of Korea and Norway to act together for truth-finding and redress. She said, “As co-architects of the adoption system, both Norway and Korea must engage in cooperation,” and “the two countries should spur each other, add momentum, and be pressed to move forward responsibly.”

She also said a support system is needed so that Norwegian adoptees can maintain ties with Korea. She said, “I hope the government will actively assist adoptees in the process of restoring Korean nationality and provide educational programs through which they can learn Korean, so they can be reconnected with their homeland.”

Vigdis explained that this is a task for future generations, beyond merely settling past history. “I was fortunate to meet good parents, but growing up in Norway, I would suddenly feel isolated because I could not even imagine what I would look like as I grew old. I hope that when the next generation of adoptees becomes adults, they can hold genuine pride in their heritage and identity as Korean.”

On the 7th, Vigdis visited the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and, together with intercountry adoptee groups, filed additional cases of illegal intercountry adoptions. On the 9th and 10th, she participated as a panelist in the ‘5th International Conference on Adoption Truth Day’ held at the National Assembly, urging official apologies and truth-finding by both governments.

Vigdis Eckharts, co-director of the Norwegian Korean Truth-Finding Group, is interviewed by Kyunghyang Shinmun at a hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 8th. Kwon Do-hyun reporter