After 40 years of adoption, I learned the true background of my birth.

I was born on August 3, 1976, and arrived at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark on October 31. I was adopted when I was three months old.

  My (Adoptive) parents said that I was found as an orphan on the steps of a police station in Busan and that I lived in an orphanage called Namgwang Orphanage, located a little away from Busan.

When I arrived in Denmark (from Korea), I was wearing a small bracelet on my wrist, and my Korean name, Kim Young-sik, was written on it.

Now 46 years old, I’ve been thinking all my life about my Korean parents, who were able to leave me on the street and go their own way. This is the story that I have believed in. I lived in a crisis of identity, not knowing where I came from or why my biological parents had to leave their baby on the street. They say I was only a few days old when I was found.

I grew up in a small town called Ribe in western Utland, Denmark. I also have a Danish-born younger brother who was adopted. I was trained in steelmaking and later worked as a marine engineer. I have a long career in the marine industry and am currently working on two-stroke marine engines using green technology. Once, I went to Busan for work and passed the police station while walking around the city. I stopped and took some pictures of the police station.

If you are adopted from Korea to Denmark, you will be different from others. It reminds me every day that I’m different from other children. This undoubtedly affects personality formation as well as relationships with others.

The loss of our biological parents leaves us with a deep wound. It’s very hard to get out of the trauma. It can be difficult to explain that feeling to others, and it can be difficult to explain the feelings I feel to my family.

I remember asking my father if he could find his biological parents one day, and he answered that it would be more difficult than finding a needle in a pile of hay because no one knew about them.

I still feel the after-effects of adoption, and the after-effects always follow me.

Their reply suddenly contained information that would turn everything upside down.

My world stopped.

Surprisingly, Danish adoption agencies also legally require the consent of biological parents, but they also did not see the consent forms. In the hope of finding the truth about my birth record, I really want to be reunited with my biological mother and family. Also, I would like to have a chance to ask them if they really gave me up for adoption and made such a decision voluntarily.

“I know some people don’t think biological blood ties are that important. But as I lost my connection with a certain person, there was a gap in my life.

It’s like a person who fell from the sky.”

Pression Editor’s Note: In September 2022, 283 overseas adoptees submitted an investigation application to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to determine whether human rights were violated at the time of adoption. The number of people increased to 372 as additional applications were submitted twice on November 15th and December 9th. They requested an investigation into whether human rights were violated in the adoption process of overseas adoptees adopted from Korea to Denmark and around the world during the authoritarian period from the 1970s to the early 1990s and whether there was any intervention by the government in the process. Fortunately, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced on December 8 that it had decided to open an investigation into ‘human rights violations during the overseas adoption process’, and on June 8, it announced that it would open an investigation into an additional 237 people. This is the first government-level investigation decision in 68 years since Korea began overseas adoption. <Pressian> plans to continue publishing articles written by overseas adoptees who have requested an investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A SPECIAL REQUEST TO THE KOREAN GOVERNMENT: Dear Korea…