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Variety.com Posted: Sat., Oct. 6, 2007, 12:59pm PT
First US, Korean co-production in Seoul
'Hanji Box' is first project from Cost Program
By DARCY PAQUET
Actress Amy Irving is coming to Seoul to star alongside Baek Yoon-shik ("The President's Last Bang") and Kim Yoon-jin (ABC's "Lost") in "Hanji Box," the first U.S.-Korean co-production to shoot on Korean soil.
The independent feature by Vermont-based filmmaker Nora Jacobson ("Nothing Like Dreaming") is inspired by a true story about an American woman who travels to Seoul in hopes of better understanding her estranged daughter, a Korean adoptee.
While there, she becomes taken with the work of a Korean painter (Baek), and eventually meets and falls in love with him.

The Korea Herald
2008.11.26
Part II:Am I American or am I Korean?

Following is Part II of a three part series on growing up adopted. Part III will be in tomorrows Expat Living. To comment, e-mail mattlamers@heraldm.com. Richard Spalding can be reached through his blog www.inmyseoul.com -- Ed.
From Part I
My mothers favorite childhood story about me was when I paraded around the house with an American flag, playing Bruce Springsteens Born in the USA on my Playskool cassette player, and singing along at the top of my lungs. Ironically, this song was my favorite while I was growing up. It is ironic because I was not born in the USA.

The Korea Times
05-19-2009 20:05
Jackie Chan to Volunteer in Tongyeong for 3 Days
Action star Jackie Chan
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Chinese action star Jackie Chan will be spending three days volunteering in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, the Chosun Ilbo reported Tuesday.

The Hankyoreh
“입양없는 세상 왔으면…”
김봉규 기자
» “입양없는 세상 왔으면…”
‘국외입양인연대’와 ‘뿌리의 집’ 회원들이 5일 오전 서울 합정동 한강시민공원에서 ‘입양없는 하루’를 촉구하는 행사를 열어, 비행기 모형 위에 동전 2천개를 쌓는 퍼포먼스를 통해 지금까지 20여만명을 외국에 입양시킨 우리나라의 현실을 고발하고 있다.
김봉규 기자 bong9@hani.co.kr
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/285909.html

The New York Times
To Adopt, Please Press Hold
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: June 5, 2008
FAMILY MATTERS James Carlos Casserly, along with his parents, Julie and John.
In 2005, when they set out to adopt a Guatemalan baby boy, the couple faced the usual jitters, not to mention mounds of paperwork. But none of that stress, the couple said, compares with what they are going through now.
For the first adoption, “It was a matter of when,” said Mrs. Casserly, 37. “This time, it is a matter of ‘if.’ ”

International Herald Tribune
Published: September 17, 2007
With faith, an American adoptee's search for his father ends on death row
By Choe Sang-Hun

SEOUL: Aaron Bates, growing up a happy child in the American family that adopted him when he was 5, always wondered who his biological parents were and whether they were alive. After two decades, his search has led him to a prisoner on death row in South Korea.
Sung Nak Joo, 58, who says he is Bates's birth father (and is accepted as such by Bates despite genetic data suggesting otherwise) is one of the longest-serving death row inmates in South Korea. If the country resumes hanging condemned prisoners - the last executions took place in 1997 - he probably will be among the first to be executed.

The Hankyoreh
2008.5.06
입양아 떠나보낸 ‘비행기’ 고국 땅에 날립니다
국외입양인연대, 5일 ‘20만명 매매입양’ 비판 퍼포먼스
김정효 기자
» 나경자(35・미국명 제니 툴・사진)씨
“그 비행기가 한국 아이들이 더 이상 돈에 팔려가지 않게 막아주었으면 좋겠어요.”

JoongAng Daily
Adoptee to U.S. seeks roots in Korea, views overseas adoption as a last resort
‘I have always felt like my birth mother may have abandoned me physically, but that spiritually, she never cut the umbilical cord.’
October 03, 2007

Beth Lo (center) with her husband (left) and their six children. Provided by Beth Lo
Seoul’s population thinned out early last week when many of its 10 million residents, except for foreigners and natives of the capital city, hit the road for their ancestral home towns elsewhere in the country for Chuseok.

http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/convention/convention_3852.html
U.S. on Track to Join the Hague Adoption Convention in December
A message from the U.S. Department of State
The U.S. Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues, is pleased to announce that the President signed the U.S. instrument of ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention on November 16. The legal requirements for ratification of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) have been completed, and we plan to join with our deposit the instrument of ratification on December 12, 2007! The Department will announce the official date the Convention will go into force for the United States—projected to be April 1, 2008—in the Federal Register. The Hague Adoption Convention protects children and their families against the risks of unregulated adoptions abroad and ensures that intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of children. The Convention also serves to prevent the abduction of, sale of, or traffic in children.
Once the treaty is in force, the new processing requirements for Hague adoption cases will take effect for adoptions between the United States and more than 70 Convention members. The new process protects the rights of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents while promoting transparency, accountability, and ethical practices among adoption service providers.

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Donga Ilbo, October 8th, 2007
Increased Number of Unwed Mothers Raising the Child on their Own
by Woo Jungyeol
According to Korea Women’s Development Institute(KWDI) the rate for single moms hoping to raise the child on their own increased up to 31.7% from 12.1% in 1998 and 5.8% in 1984. Ae Ran Won’s director Han Sangsoon says the number of mothers choosing to bring up over adoption has increased by more than 10 % during the past 5 years.
The decrease in the number of adoptees and single-parented children among these adoptees also shows the increase in the mothers’ efforts to bring up their own children. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare(MOHW), the number of adoptees both domestic and overseas is consistently going down, from 4,600 in 1990, 4,046 in 2000, 3,899 in 2004, and 3,562 in 2006. Among these adoptees the percentage of single-parented children has also gone down to 80% in 1990 to 60% after 2000.
Those who raise up the children tend to be more educated and older, compared to those who send their children to institutions or for adoption. Last year’s research by the Ministry of Women and Family(MOWF) shows that among 65 women who joined a group home, 78.4% have graduated from high schools and 21.6% either graduated or still in colleges. On the other hand those who send the children for adoption had 71.4% high school graduates and 28.6% in college. The average age of those raising children is 24.5, which is three years older than that of overall single moms.
Most of these women are planning to continue their studies and be financially independent in the future. Despite the difficulties they may face, many of them agree that the life ahead is important for the both of them.