File Reviews & Birth Search in the Age of NCRC: Part 1
In this two-part series, program manager and Korean adoptee Liz Kwon personally reflects on how birth search and file reviews are being handled since NCRC took over adoptee files earlier in 2025. Part 1 is about file reviews at the location the adoptee was found.
The Friday before Korean Ties First Wave officially started, I found myself trying to convince a translator that 20 minutes was more than enough time to go get a toast (a breakfast sandwhich with egg, ham, veggies and a gochu-based sauce) and coffee and still make the KTX train bound for Mokpo. When the train pulled away from Seoul station, myself and fellow adoptee, Sara, were already halfway through our toasts.
View from the KTX train on the way to Mokpo.
The train to Mokpo was as uneventful as any other train ride across the country: we chatted, scrolled on our phones, and enjoyed the scenery outside. Once in Mokpo, the smell of the ocean was immediate: rolling softly through the area as we went to a café to grab some pastries for the orphanage workers. I’ve come to find that bringing pastries and coffee to the orphanage and agency workers is normal and almost expected, although no one who receives the food ever lets on that they knew it was coming.
A 20 minute taxi ride brought us to the orphanage, a visit that the translator had arranged earlier in the year. She had already been to Mokpo to look through the police records and didn’t find anything on Sara. Visiting the orphanage, completing a DNA test, doing a file review with NCRC, and making a plea on national television was all on the Sara’s agenda for this trip - something that is a lot to do alone, which is part of the reason why I told Sara that if she needed support, I was happy to accompany her. It is important for adoptees to have someone in their corner to hold space for them while the other people in the room are focused on other things.
The room where the orphanage completed the file review wasn’t private but the rest of the employees didn’t let on they could hear us even though I am sure some of them were eavesdropping. The orphanage representative brought out several binders arranged by year with dark, aged papers that indicated children who were dropped off or found. One binder was for children that were found and then later returned to their families who came to pick them up - names, ages, and identifying information laid out neatly on the pages. The other was a binder that had children that were dropped off or found and no family ever came forward to collect the child. Both of the binders for the year that Sara was found were roughly the same size in thickness, with the unidentified children’s binder being slightly bigger.
The binder of unidentified children that were adopted out. We were given permission to film at the orphanage.
It is interesting to sit in file review meetings and realize that some parents a) didn’t want to be found and b) weren’t expecting to be found. I speculated that since Sara was brought directly to Mokpo City Hall during the day and in the winter, that whomever dropped her off knew who she was. There was no note left but her birth date was written down as “certain.” We all went back and forth on this for awhile - unfortunately with so few clues often the beginning part of an adoptee’s life is all speculation - but with the date being left at City Hall being in December, during the week in the morning just after opening, it made sense that the family member talked directly to a city hall employee and that employee honored the family member’s wishes and did not log any record of family name other than Sara’s own. The orphanage representative - who appeared to be slightly older than us - apologized several times for not having more information: back then, they did not know that it would be important to keep good records. Now, they make sure to take as much information as possible on the child because they realize that the more information is given, the better.
During the file review, a camera crew walked in and started setting up without so much as a hello. The staff at the orphanage pushed them out until the file review was complete and then allowed the crew back in to film. It was jarring how quick it was. The journalist introduced herself, asked a few questions while the film crew moved about the room and then it was over. It took maybe 5 minutes total for the piece to be filmed.
Leaving the orphanage, it was very clear that the representative wanted to provide better news to Sara. It’s possible that there are very few adoptees who are reunited in Mokpo - the port city was very poor and in some parts, remains almost unchanged. The islands that dot the area are full of fishermen and their families; finding someone who left little information would require going to every single habitable island off the city as well as the city itself. There are more than 100 islands to traverse - a feat that would take more money and time than adoptees have. And as adoptees get older, the chances of finding a relative who is alive or a neighbor who is willing to talk, dwindles down to the tiniest atom.
As we pulled away in the car to our next destination, we waved at the orphanage representative - the one who went so diligently over Sara’s file with us - crying next to her boss, who squeezed her shoulder in comfort. It’s people like her who want so desperately to help but can’t, that adoptees need to cherish.