South Korea's president apologized on Thursday for the first time over state-sanctioned malpractices in sending tens of thousands of children overseas for adoption, saying "unjust human rights violations" were committed.
An official inquiry held the government accountable earlier this year for facilitating adoptions through fraudulent practices, including falsifying documents and switching identities.
The country — now Asia's fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse — was for decades one of the world's biggest exporters of children, having sent more than 140,000 overseas for adoption between 1955 and 1999.
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