Mistaken: Minnesota’s Korean adoptees grapple with confessed systemic corruption

Earlier this year, South Korea’s government admitted that widespread corruption had tainted hundreds of thousands of adoptions from its country. Babies who were thought to be orphaned had living parents. Some children were trafficked. Paperwork was falsified. Records were destroyed.

Korean adoptees worldwide were left reeling, including here in Minnesota, home to the largest population of Korean adoptees in the U.S. Many had already wrestled with questions of identity and racial and cultural belonging. Now even the small bits of information they had about their past could no longer be trusted.

How are Korean adoptees who call Minnesota home responding to this foundational earthquake? Earlier this month, MPR News’ North Star Journey Live project hosted a gathering of adoptees who are deeply invested in the search for truth about their origin stories at Arbeiter Brewing in Minneapolis.

North Star Journey Live

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Moderated by Twin Cities PBS reporter Kaomi Lee, who is herself an adoptee, the panel shared their personal histories and how the work they do today is moving the narrative forward.

Guests:

• Kaomi Lee is a reporter at Twin Cities PBS. She is also the host of Adapted, one of the longest running Korean adoptee podcasts.

• Ami Nafzger has been working on behalf of Korean adoptees for decades as the founder of the Korean-based GOAL (Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link) and the newer Minnesota-based Adoptee Hub.

• Matt McNiff is the board president and director at Camp Choson, one of many Korean culture camps started in the Upper Midwest in response to the wave of adoptions from Korea.

• Cam Lee Small is a licensed clinical therapist who specializes in adoption literacy, working both here in the Twin Cities and online. He’s also the author of “The Adoptee’s Journey.”

• Mary Niedermeyer is the CEO of Communities Advancing Prosperity for Immigrants, also known as CAPI, a Minnesota-based nonprofit.

Correction (Dec. 2, 2025): An earlier version of this story had an incomplete title for CAPI. The story has been updated.

Resources to learn more

Watch:

• South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning
  a investigative documentary from The Associated Press and PBS’ Frontline

• Between Goodbyes
  When a queer Korean adoptee reunites with her birth mother in Seoul, long-buried cultural misunderstandings and unspoken regrets surface. With tenderness, humor, and determination, both mother and daughter navigate the heart-wrenching legacy of international adoption. Premieres Dec. 8.

Listen:

• Adapted podcast

Connect:

• Adoptee Hub
  led by Ami Nafzger, serves international adoptees and their adoptive families

• AK Connection
  a community resource for adult Korean adoptees in Minnesota

• Korean Institute of Minnesota

• Adoption Literacy, LLC (previously Therapy Redeemed)
  Cam Lee Small’s therapy practice, which focuses on the adoptee experience and literacy, including a Teen Adoptee Identity & Skills Group Winter 2026 and an Adoptive Parenting Education & Support Group Winter 2026

• Minnesota Adoptee Therapist Directory from Grow Beyond Words

• Network of Politicized Adoptees Community Class
  a series that examines the histories and cultures of American transnational adoption, led by Kim Park Nelson, the director and associate professor of ethnic studies at Winona State University

• JangmiArts, a place for Korean adoptees and their families to celebrate Korean heritage

• Korean culture camps: Camp Choson, Kamp Kimchee, Korean Culture Camp of Minnesota

• Sejong Academy
  a Korean immersion chatter school based in Maplewood

Read:

• “The Adoptee’s Journey” by Cam Lee Small

• Harlow’s Monkey, a blog about transnational and transracial adoption

• “Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging” by Eleana J. Kim

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