Korea's Overseas Adoption and Its Positive Impact on Domestic Adoption and Child Welfare in Korea

Korea’s international adoption program began after the Korean War (1950–1953). Harry Holt traveled to Korea from Oregon in 1955 and brought twelve war orphans home to the United States to provide them with permanent adoptive families (Holt Children’s Services, 2002). Since then, more than 150,000 children have found adoptive homes overseas. Korea continues to place its homeless children internationally for adoption, long after the end of the War, because few permanent homes can be found domestically (Bai, 2000b).