In 2023 again, the Republic of Korea was cited as non-compliant with its Hague treaty obligations :(
The US State Department just released its 2023 annual report on international parental child abduction, and once again, South Korea is on the bad list of non-compliant nations. (And this year that list now includes Russia...really not a good look, South Korea!)
Why? Because South Korea still hasn't returned our abducted children, despite long-standing court return orders finalized by the South Korean Supreme Court for years. South Korean law enforcement, including the Ministry of Justice, has done nothing to address the situation.
South Korea was cited for the first time in 2022, and had a whole year to do something about the problem. Instead, government officials spent the first six months in denial, and only started to have serious discussions with their US diplomatic counterparts after being subjected to intense media scrutiny spurred by this protest movement. Still, they only talked, and did not take any concrete action, leading to this second citation in 2023.
We have word from the US State Department that we may finally see some improvements later in 2023, but we still don't have any specifics about what that might involve, and there's been no commitment to a timeline. Meanwhile, our children remain cut off from their loving parents, their home countries, their extended families, and their true identities. And as every day slips by, the chasm widens.
So, we need to continue to raise the issue as forcefully as possible through the media and the voices of concerned global citizens such as yourselves. We need the government of South Korea to take immediate action to send our children home, and we need the US State Department to apply stronger pressure on its South Korean counterparts to expedite this. Please continue to publicize this petition so that this important change can happen.
By the way, if you watched the news last weeks, you may have seen Presidents Biden and Yoon having a good time together at the summit, with President Yoon even serenading President Biden with his rendition of Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie. Well, I'd like to ask both presidents...why do we left-behind parents have to keep singing "Bye, Bye, Our American Kids?"
You can find the full report at the US State Department's IPCA page.
You can also watch a recent JTBC broadcast about the issue on YouTube.
Thank you so much for signing and sharing this petition...at close to 6000 signatures now, you are making a huge difference!