Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok, criticizing President Moon’s “adoption remarks”, insisted that “the intention is quite distorted”. As the controversy over President Moon’s remarks at the New Year’s press conference, the Blue House seems to be actively putting out lights.
Earlier, on the 18th, President Moon was criticized for his response to the so-called’changing adopted children’ regarding the recent countermeasures against the child abuse case (Jung Ini’s case). Spokesman Kang expressed “regret”, but blamed the misunderstanding of the issue rather than President Moon’s remarks.
On the 19th, at MBC Radio (Kim Jong-bae’s attention), spokesman Kang said, “There was an expression that was too harsh for children to say’returns’. Rather, I am curious about how such an idea was possible.” It seems that Yoo Seung-min, a former member of the Future Tongha Party (current people’s power), criticized the previous day, saying, “What kind of shopping is a child doing return, exchange, and refund?”
Spokesman Kang said that President Moon was referring to the’pre-entrustment system’ for children. “It is a system that checks whether a child is a suitable family from a child’s point of view or whether it is suitable for forming a new family relationship, etc.,” he said. “In other countries, even if you want to adopt, you cannot adopt a child from the next day. In the case of France, if the marriage is agreed, the consignment protection is for more than 6 months, and in the case of Japan, trial parenting is conducted for 6 months. Not only a few countries but also all countries operate such a system, and there is a system in Korea,” he added.
When asked, “Do you admit that the expression was not appropriate regardless of the context or purpose?” he said, “I think it would have been possible to understand the whole context of what (President) said yesterday, but I am a bit disappointed.”
The Blue House met with reporters coming and going right after the press conference the day before, and delivered a “supplementary explanation”, saying, “There was a misunderstanding” in the presidential remarks. A key member of the Blue House said at this meeting, “The President’s message was to promote the management and support of adoption.” “This system is to monitor new families from the child’s point of view. It is a system for children.” “There are reports that the presidential mention of this pre-consignment protection is misunderstood as’dismissal’ under the Special Adoption Act, but it is revealed that it is not at all to dismiss the child.”
It is true that some opposition figures use somewhat excessive expressions, but it is difficult for criticism to easily subside. Civil society has also pointed out that mentioning the adoption system in the case where child abuse is the essence is inappropriate. On the 18th, a petition with the title “You must apologize to the children and adoptive parents waiting for adoption” was posted on the Blue House National Petition bulletin board. The petitioner said, “Should this work focus on being murderers rather than adoptive parents?” “I agree that the follow-up management for adoption should be carried out thoroughly. Nevertheless, even the president of this country asked for an apology, saying, “If the children waiting for adoption and their adoptive parents are treated like that, who should they be protected by?”
The following is a summary of adoption-related remarks from President Moon’s New Year press conference provided by the Blue House.
President Moon Jae-in: It really hurts to see such incidents these days that child abuse and that leads to death. People, I wonder how heartbreaking is. I humbly take this point that we did not have adequate measures against him. We must take the lessons that have happened so far, and come up with certain measures. First of all, such a system is needed to detect certain signs of crisis in the abused child more quickly, and then, as soon as a suspected situation of the abused child is discovered, such measures are needed to separate the abused child from the parent or adoptive parent. Then, temporary shelters and shelters that can protect abused children need to be significantly expanded. In addition, since last year, a child abuse-dedicated public official with expertise to take charge of the problem has been established, and the number needs to be increased significantly, centering on the public officials, the police, schools, medical circles, or civil society, children. I think that the protection agency should have a comprehensive discussion system like this.
In the case of adoption, we investigate the circumstances of whether the adoptive parents can afford the adoption in advance, and visit the adopted family several times in the early stages to see if the child is adjusting well. Because it can change, the adoption itself is canceled within a certain period of time, or the adoption itself is revitalized in various ways, such as changing the adopted child in case of a strong desire to adopt but not matching the child. I think that such measures to protect adopted children are also necessary. Since legislation is actively being submitted in the National Assembly, we will discuss with the National Assembly to take very necessary measures early.
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