Yoo Seung-min: "President Moon, is an adopted child an item to be 'returned or exchanged' at will?"

"If You Have Considered Children's Rights... Such Words Would Never Come Out"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min criticized President Moon Jae-in on the 18th for mentioning improvements to the adoption system and the possibility of canceling adoptions or changing adopted children if adoptive parents find the child unsuitable, saying, "President Moon is not a sincere person but like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and questioned, "Is an adopted child something you can return, exchange, or refund at will like shopping goods?"

On the same day, Yoo said on Facebook, "Even it is difficult to give up a dog, so how can someone say such things about a person?" and added, "The moment I heard this, I was stunned and had to double-check if the president’s remarks were correct."

Yoo also pointed out, "It was strange from the moment the president spoke as if child abuse was a problem of adoption when the 16-month-old child abuse death case occurred. I wondered if he was unaware that almost all child abuse is committed by biological parents, not adoptive parents," and criticized, "The president, a human rights lawyer who said 'people first,' actually had no thoughts about human dignity and value. If he had seriously considered children's rights even once, such remarks would never have come out."

Yoo added, "There was no sincere reflection on the mistakes of the past four years in today’s press conference," and said, "Regarding real estate, vaccines, livelihood, and inter-Korean relations, the president and this administration did nothing wrong, and their intentions and policies were right, but only the results were insufficient due to unavoidable circumstances."

Earlier, President Moon sparked controversy during the New Year press conference by saying, "Since adoptive parents’ feelings can change, within a certain period, there should be measures to cancel adoption or change adopted children if they do not match, and various methods are needed to protect adopted children while not discouraging but activating adoption itself."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.