SEOUL, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday apologized for the country's troubled history of overseas adoptions, acknowledging that "unjust human rights violations" occurred and vowing stronger safeguards going forward.
"South Korea once bore the shameful stigma of being a 'child exporter,'" Lee said in a Facebook post.
"While some found loving adoptive families, many suffered their entire lives due to the irresponsibility and inaction of certain adoption agencies," he said. "My heart is heavy when I think of the anxiety, pain, and confusion of international adoptees who were thrown alone into a foreign land at a young age."
In March, a long-awaited report by South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the government violated adoptees' rights as it sought to expedite overseas adoptions rather than strengthen domestic welfare programs. The report highlighted fraudulent practices such as document falsification, infant substitution and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents.
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