标签： Asia

GWACHEON, South Korea — In a rare, frank acknowledgment of historical state wrongdoing, South Korean Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho has announced sweeping new measures to expand access to justice for survivors of government-sanctioned human rights abuses, most notably the mass, fraudulent overseas adoption scheme operated under decades past military regimes. Speaking to a group of journalists at a roundtable discussion Thursday, Jung used blunt, uncharacteristically strong language for a top South Korean official, describing the country’s mid-to-late 20th century overseas adoption program as nothing less than “forced child trafficking.” He added that the national government will largely stop appealing court rulings that favor abuse survivors seeking financial compensation for state misconduct. The announcement marks a major shift from decades of legal obstruction that has left many verified victims fighting for redress for years.

The issue of fraudulent Korean adoptions has reemerged as a national reckoning after South Korea relaunched its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in February, following the expiration of the body’s original investigative mandate last November. Hundreds of Korean adoptees now residing in Western countries have already submitted requests for the TRC to investigate their cases, seeking official confirmation of government responsibility that they can use as legal backing for damage claims against the state or private adoption agencies that facilitated their adoptions. The first iteration of the TRC had already concluded that the South Korean government bore clear accountability for a corrupt adoption system rife with systemic fraud and misconduct. Backed by military leaders who saw the program as a tool to cut public welfare spending and reduce population growth, state-authorized private agencies systematically falsified children’s birth records, fabricated consent documentation from biological parents, and obscured their true origins to speed up international placements.

Prior to Jung’s announcement, victims who secured favorable court rulings after being recognized by the TRC often faced years of prolonged litigation, as state prosecutors routinely appealed positive rulings on the grounds of expired statutes of limitations or questioned the conclusiveness of the commission’s findings. That pattern is now set to change. Under a new law that came into force in February, survivors of verified state abuses have a three-year window to file damage claims even if the original statute of limitations for their case has already expired. Last week, Jung’s ministry — which represents the South Korean government in all civil legal claims against the state — announced it would withdraw time-limit-based appeals in more than 800 ongoing cases, and Jung confirmed Thursday that the same cooperative approach will be extended to adoptees’ future lawsuits. “Once the truth commission firmly establishes the basic facts (regarding the abuses), we intend to cooperate to ensure the process moves swiftly,” Jung stated.

The push for greater accountability builds on an apology issued by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a close political ally of Jung, for the historic adoption abuses last October. While the new framework clears major legal barriers for many survivors, some adoptees and advocates still point to ongoing delays in processing direct compensation claims. Yooree Kim, who was sent to a French adoptive family in 1984 without her biological parents’ consent and has spoken publicly about abuse at the hands of her adoptive parents, is one of the adoptees who has filed for compensation under South Korea’s State Compensation Act. This law theoretically allows survivors to secure damages without extended, costly court battles, but the Justice Ministry has missed its statutory 4-week deadline to rule on Kim’s and other adoptees’ claims, leaving them waiting more than six months for a decision, according to Choi Jung Kyu, a lawyer representing the group of adoptees. Jung responded to these concerns by saying he would order ministry officials to address backlogs and delays, though he stopped short of creating a new, standalone expedited process as some advocates have demanded.

Between the 1970s and early 2000s, South Korea facilitated the overseas adoption of roughly 200,000 Korean children, with annual placements peaking at more than 6,000 per year throughout the 1980s. At the time, the country was ruled by an authoritarian military government that framed rapid population growth as a major barrier to its ambitious economic development goals, and framed international adoption as a low-cost solution to reduce public welfare spending. The original TRC’s findings align with an independent investigation published by the Associated Press and PBS Frontline, which drew on thousands of government documents and dozens of survivor interviews to expose how South Korea’s government, Western adoption intermediaries, and receiving countries collaborated to move children overseas despite widespread documentation of corrupt and illegal procurement practices.

Beyond addressing the legacy of adoption abuses, Jung also outlined the government’s new commitments to root out human trafficking and forced labor in South Korea’s agricultural sector, particularly at remote salt farms off the country’s southwest coast, where decades of abuse against vulnerable migrant workers have drawn widespread international criticism. These efforts have gained new urgency in recent weeks, after the Trump administration launched investigations into dozens of countries accused of failing to curb forced labor, a move that paves the way for new tariffs and trade restrictions. The policy shift came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s earlier emergency power-based tariffs, clearing the way for this new enforcement structure. Last year, the U.S. already blocked all imports from one major South Korean salt farm over well-documented claims of slave labor, marking the first punitive trade action taken against the long-running abuse crisis in the country’s salt industry.

Jung said the South Korean government will strengthen its enforcement of anti-trafficking and labor laws, including directing prosecutors to pursue harsher criminal penalties for violators and increasing regulatory oversight of businesses that hire foreign migrant workers. “We cannot monitor every corner of the private sector, but I think we are capable of supervising these matters more thoroughly than almost any other country,” Jung said.

In a landmark event that marks the first high-level encounter between China’s ruling Communist Party and Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) in more than a decade, Kuomintang chairperson Cheng Li-wun held a formal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Friday. Both leaders used the historic gathering to issue joint commitments to upholding cross-strait peace across the Taiwan Strait and advancing the goal of eventual unification between mainland China and the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its sovereign territory.

The meeting comes amid escalating cross-strait tensions in recent years. Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan, conducting regular large-scale military exercises that send warships and fighter jets into areas adjacent to the island, while steadily poaching the small number of diplomatic allies that still recognize Taipei’s sovereignty. Beijing has never renounced the option of using military force to bring Taiwan under its control, a stance that has fueled widespread international concern over potential conflict in the strategically vital region.

Opening the meeting to a round of applause from delegates from both sides, President Xi welcomed Cheng and her KMT delegation, emphasizing the unshakable trajectory of closer ties between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. “The larger trend of compatriots on both sides of the strait walking nearer and nearer together will not change. This is a historical necessity. We have full confidence in this,” Xi stated.

Cheng, who framed her five-day trip to mainland China as a “journey for peace” long before her arrival, struck a conciliatory tone in her remarks. “Although people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait live under different systems, we will respect each other and move towards each other,” she said, adding that the KMT’s core goal is to “seek systemic solutions to prevent and avoid war” across the Taiwan Strait.

Cheng began her mainland visit on Tuesday, stopping first in Shanghai and Nanjing before traveling to the Chinese capital for Friday’s meeting. A longstanding advocate for peaceful cross-strait engagement, she has openly opposed large increases to Taiwan’s defense budget, and her KMT party currently holds enough legislative sway to block incumbent Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s proposed special defense allocation. The budget would fund major arms purchases, including the development of the “Taiwan Dome,” a domestically built air defense interception system.

The historical context of cross-strait relations stretches back to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. When Mao Zedong’s Communist Party seized control of mainland China, defeated KMT forces retreated across the Taiwan Strait to the island, where they established a separate governing administration that has remained in place ever since.

A core point of agreement reaffirmed by both leaders at Friday’s meeting was commitment to the 1992 Consensus, the informal tacit agreement that underpinned decades of cross-strait engagement. While the agreement has never been formalized in a signed official document, both sides agree that it upholds the core principle that Taiwan and mainland China are part of a single “one China.” The two sides have long differed on interpretation, however: the KMT has long held that each side is free to interpret what “one China” means individually, a position Beijing has never formally recognized.

In closing her remarks, Cheng emphasized that both parties would work together to ensure the Taiwan Strait is transformed from a potential conflict flashpoint into a region of lasting peace, and would prevent the island from becoming a geopolitical pawn manipulated by outside powers.

This report was compiled with contributions from correspondent Wu reporting from Bangkok, Thailand.

In a landmark meeting that marks the first high-level engagement between China’s ruling Communist Party and Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang in a decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Kuomintang chair Cheng Li-wun in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Friday, with both leaders centering their dialogue on a shared commitment to cross-strait peace. This meeting breaks a long period of limited formal interaction between Beijing and major Taiwanese opposition figures, and it comes at a time of heightened regional tensions over the Taiwan Strait status quo.

Cheng Li-wun’s visit is the first by a sitting Kuomintang leader to mainland China since 2016. That same year, Beijing cut off all high-level official communications with Taiwan after Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen took the Taiwanese presidency, a move driven by Tsai’s refusal to publicly acknowledge the 1992 Consensus, the one-China principle that forms the baseline of cross-strait dialogue for Beijing. Cheng has framed her current trip as a mission for peace, but the ruling DPP in Taiwan has already lashed out at the visit, accusing Cheng of bowing to Beijing’s demands to undermine Taiwan’s sovereign status.

Beijing has long maintained that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and has repeatedly declined to rule out the use of military force to bring the self-governing island under its control if formal independence is declared. Speaking during the meeting, President Xi emphasized that the historic gathering of leaders from the two parties was intended to protect peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, advance the peaceful development of cross-strait ties, and build a prosperous shared future for generations on both sides of the strait. He added that Beijing remains open to strengthening exchanges and dialogue with all major Taiwanese parties, including the Kuomintang, as long as both sides uphold the shared political foundation of opposing Taiwan independence. Xi also reiterated that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are ethnic Chinese who all share a common desire for lasting peace.

In her response, Cheng echoed Xi’s remarks, noting that the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is a common goal shared by people across both sides of the strait, and that stable cross-strait relations would represent a positive contribution to global peace and human progress. Political analysts note that while the Kuomintang has a long history of maintaining friendly, open ties with Beijing, Cheng’s willingness to pursue this high-profile meeting marks a departure from the more cautious approach taken by recent KMT leaders, who have sought to balance cross-strait engagement with domestic political pressure to protect Taiwan’s autonomous status.

Beijing has refused to enter into any formal official dialogue with current Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took office earlier this year, labeling Lai a committed separatist. Lai has repeatedly stated that he will maintain the current cross-strait status quo, but Chinese authorities and state-run media have launched relentless verbal attacks against him, referring to him as a troublemaker and a warmonger who risks dragging the region into conflict. Public opinion data from recent surveys in Taiwan shows that while a majority of Taiwanese residents identify as citizens of a sovereign nation, a large plurality still favors maintaining the current status quo—avoiding both immediate formal unification with China and a formal declaration of full independence that would trigger a strong response from Beijing.