Conference Aimed at Koreans Living Abroad

This week, 50 years after the start of Korean overseas adoption, a five-day conference is being held in Seoul to bring together Koreans living abroad.

The Overseas Koreans Foundation (OKF), whose chief director is Lee Gwang-gyu, announced Gathering 2004, supported by the foundation, will start Wednesday.

Participating in the meeting will be 430 Koreans from 15 nations, such as the U.S. and Sweden.

The international meeting is aimed at having Koreans who live abroad share their experience and ideas on Korea. This is the third such meeting, following one held in the U.S. in 1999 and another in Norway in 2001.

The foundation said, “This meeting, the first one held in our mother country, was prepared in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of overseas adoption. This will be a place seeking for various national identities by collecting about 200,000 adopted Koreans’ will shattered all over the world.”

The conference will include various debates and seminars on cultural and national identity of adopted people and their personal experience, Korean cultural activities, and so on. The main events are held in Hotel Sofitel Ambassador.

Joy Riverdel of the arrangement committee of this gathering said, “It is the first visit for many adopted Koreans and families. This meeting will help build the adopted Koreans’ worldwide network, not just an interchange among them.”

Participant events related to “seeking roots,” such as looking for biological parents and a tour of Korea, will be actively developed before and after the conference.

In particular, experts point out that Korean people’s understanding of the overseas adopted should be changed, and this meeting should create momentum for preparing a after-adoption program.

Korea is still stigmatized as an “orphan-exporting country,” as so many overseas adoptions are made even though the nation itself has become a somewhat developed country in its economic growth. In addition, systematic study and support of overseas adopted Koreans is still lacking.

Hwang Seung-yeon, professor of sociology at Kyunghee University, said, “The after-adoption management is need even for the national interest, as the overseas adopted Koreans can act as liaisons connecting their mother country with the nation in which they have grown up.”

Ji-Won Jun podragon@donga.com