Sweden halts adoptions from South Korea after claims of falsified papers on origins of children

By JAN M. OLSEN
Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s main adoption agency says it’s halting adoptions from South Korea, following claims of falsified papers on the origins of children adopted from the Asian country. The head of Adoptionscentrum said on Wednesday “that we are ending international adoptions in South Korea” and referred to a South Korean law on international adoptions passed earlier this year. The law aims at having all future adoptions handled by the state. Seoul has for years said it plans to ratify a convention on international adoption but there’s no specific timetable yet. For decades, hundreds of Korean adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia have said that their adoptions were based on documents that falsified or obscured their origins.