Dozens of Korean adoptees hang 900+ nametags at Paju park to find birth mothers
Dozens of Korean adoptees from North America and Europe attached ceramic tags at Omma Poom Park — a public effort tied to probes into decades of falsified records and mislabelled ‘orphans.’.
Jun 2, 2026, 9:12 PM EDT
Why it matters: The wall turns private searches into a public claim: adoptees want names, records and answers after a Truth and Reconciliation Commission found widespread fraud in South Korea's international adoptions.
Driving the news:
- Dozens of adoptees gathered at Omma Poom Park in Paju and fastened more than 900 ceramic nametags to a cobblestone wall.
- Each tag lists an adoptee’s name, birth year and birthplace; colors mark adoption decades.
- The event aimed to reach birth mothers who might still be looking.
- Organizers placed about 1,000 profile pages in a nearby museum building.
On the ground:
- Omma Poom, which means "mother's embrace," sits on a former U.S. military base north of Seoul.
- The park opened in June 2025 after a campaign by photographer Lee Yong-nam and the adoptee group Me & Korea.
- Tags hang like unmailed letters — red and sky blue for the 1970s–80s peak, white for adoptees who died without reunions.
- Visitors left flowers and laminated notes; one read, “You are not alone. I’m so sorry and I love you.”
The backdrop:
- South Korea sent an estimated 200,000 children to families overseas after the Korean War; adoptions peaked in the 1970s–1980s.
- At the height, more than 6,600 children were adopted abroad in a single year during the 1980s.
- The country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission found falsified records and cases where children were mislabelled as orphans.
- President Lee Jae Myung publicly apologized and pledged support for adoptees tracing their origins.
What they're saying:
- "I've just always wanted to know who I looked like," said Nicole Rieth, adopted to Michigan in 1989.
- Angela Lee-Pack, adopted to Canada in 1971, described long searches and painful near-matches that ended in denial.
- Photographer Lee Yong-nam, 72, said the wall answers a need created by decades of unchecked adoptions.
The bottom line: The wall is a simple, public demand: give people the records and the chance to find the families the state — and adoption industry — once obscured.