A story of waiting that ended with tears of joy: South Korean Han Tae-sun reunited with her daughter 44 years after her disappearance

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A story of waiting ends with tears of joy and a government lawsuit. A girl who was kidnapped nearly half a century ago and her mother never gave up.

After South Korean Han Tae-sun reunited with her daughter 44 years after her disappearance, following confirmation of a DNA match, the mother is suing the South Korean government for "violations in the adoption process."

After more than four decades of perseverance and disappointment, Han was reunited with her daughter, Kyung-ha, who had disappeared without a trace in 1975. The emotional meeting took place at an airport in Seoul, after DNA tests revealed that her daughter—now living in the United States under the name Lori Bender—had been kidnapped and illegally adopted abroad.

The story goes back to May 1975, when Han left her six-year-old daughter playing outside the family's home in Seoul to go to the market. "I said to Kyung-ha, 'Aren't you coming with me?' But she said, 'No, I'm going to play with my friends.'" When she returned home, she found no sign of her, and that was the last time she saw her daughter as a child.

In 2019, a major breakthrough came when Han sent a DNA sample to 325CAMRA, a nonprofit organization that reunites Korean adoptees with their biological families. The results confirmed that her daughter, now known as Lori Bender, was working as a nurse in California.

Lori traveled to Seoul to reunite with her mother, ending a lifelong search filled with suffering and endless hope.

Han is currently suing the South Korean government, accusing it of failing to prevent her daughter's abduction and unauthorized adoption. Her case is one of the first of its kind and highlights the growing scrutiny of South Korea's international adoption program, which has been accused of serious irregularities.

Between 1950 and the early 2000s, South Korea exported an estimated 170,000 to 200,000 children for adoption, mostly to Western countries. A recent investigation concluded that successive governments committed human rights violations by allowing the widespread export of children, often without official documentation or parental consent.

Han's lawsuit could open the door to new legal challenges by victims of the system. The case is scheduled to be heard next month.

A government spokesperson told the BBC that the government "deeply sympathizes with the emotional suffering of individuals and families who have been unable to find each other for so many years," expressing "deep regret" and pledging to take "necessary action" depending on the outcome of the case.

Han and her husband spent years trying every possible avenue, from visiting orphanages, checking police records, putting up posters, and even appearing on television. “I spent 44 years destroying my body and mind searching for my daughter,” she explained. “But did anyone ever apologize to me in all that time? Not once.”

She spoke about the toll the search had taken on her physical health, saying, “All 10 of my toenails fell off” from the constant walking in the search for her daughter.

In 1990, a woman came forward claiming to be her daughter and lived with the family for a short time before admitting she was lying. It wasn’t until 2019 that Han received real answers, thanks to the 325 Cameras organization, which connected her to Lori Bender.

Source: The Daily Guardian - Published on 24-5-2025 - https://ar.rt.com/zxph