Korean city to build park for biracial adoptees

PAJU, South Korea, March 8 (Yonhap) -- A park for mixed-race Korean adoptees sent abroad in the years after the 1950-53 Korean War will be built inside a former U.S. military base on the outskirts of Seoul, officials said Wednesday.

The park named "Mother's bosom" in Korean will be constructed in Paju, some 30 kilometers north of Seoul, this year to help biracial adoptees feel a sense of pride and affinity toward their motherland, municipal authorities said.

According to some estimates, more than 4,000 biracial children were sent abroad for adoption between 1953 and 1965. Most of them were born to American GIs and Korean women working in camp towns near U.S. military bases after the end of the war.

"We plan to start construction in May for completion at the end of the year," a city official said.

The park, the first of its kind in the world according to the city, will cover some 1,000 square meters of land inside what used to be Camp Howze. It was conceived in conjunction with Me & Korea, an organization supporting Korean adoptees in the U.S.

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