How South Korean adoptees raised abroad are returning in search of their identities

Effort to better accommodate adoptees from overseas seeking to trace their roots here in Korea continue with both the government and private entities offering assistance.

Our Bae Eun-ji tells us more.

Kim Sperling was born in Seoul in 1975, and was sent to an adoption agency when he was a month old.

He was then adopted in Germany when he was just seven months.

"I probably totally barred the whole abduction thing that the agency might've tried to sell to adoptive parents. If I had questioned that, there would have been no place where I could have found answers at that time. In the 80s and the 90s, nobody knew anything about Korea."

He first returned to Korea at the age of 30, seeking to find his roots.

"For me, it was about okay, I've got to clear the relationship between me and Korea. I mean, it's there and I cannot deny it."

That's when he also made efforts to find his biological parents.

"I started looking for them in 2006. A few weeks later I got an email and it's like we looked at the files and we contacted the hospital and they had another file and we have a name of your mother and I was surprised. It had a birth date but the police wouldn't locate any person with a matching name and birth date."

He now lives in Korea with his wife and two children.

He's also a photographer who has worked on projects that portray different stories about Korean adoptees who've returned to their country of birth.

His works also include projects that relate to his Korean heritage, including Dokdo as well as Korean nurses and miners who were sent to Germany in the mid-1900s.

"I am Korean, and I am German, and you know it's like the way my Korean is something that like my Korean identity my consciousness is like still evolving. It's like I'm learning every day."

Sterling was just one of many Korean children who were sent abroad for adoption.

Since 1953, after the country was ravaged by the Korean War, around 200-thousand Korean babies are known to have been sent to other countries.

Louise Lindberg was adopted in Sweden when she was 12.

After working as a social worker in Sweden for 18 years, she decided to return to the country where she was born.

She now helps overseas Korean adoptees reconnect with their heritage at a non-profit organization and explains many of those who return have said they feel safe and comfortable.

"And just like things like hey, people just like look like me, and they feel really comfortable. Because I asked, why did you come? What is the best thing with being in Korea? And they were like everybody just looks like me and I can just feel safe."

The South Korean government is also making efforts to help these Korean adoptees who grew up overseas.

The Overseas Korean Agency newly opened a service counter in central Seoul, aimed at providing a "one-stop" service that will not only provide interpretation services but also help them find their birth parents.

"One example of the services that this counter could provide is finding parents using DNA matches, or providing adoption information."

As the country continues to acknowledge its past on adoption, the government is now hoping to provide full support to make up for decades of lost time.

Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.